Morning Joe - Lawmakers want to know why Gabbard was at FBI raid

Episode Date: January 30, 2026

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You've also found many bags of information. I think they call them burn bags. They're supposed to be burned, and they didn't get burned, having to do with how corrupt the 2020 election was, and when will that all come out? Mr. President, I will be the first to brief you once we have that information collected, but you're right. We are finding documents literally tucked away

in the back of safes and random offices in these bags and in other areas, which again speaks to the intent of those who are trying to hide the truth from the American people. That moment from August appears to have foreshadowed what we saw play out this week in Fulton County, Georgia, where the FBI raided an elections office. We'll have the latest reporting on that operations and all the different questions it raises. Also, the ongoing questions surrounding Tulsi Gabbard's role in all of this. Why was the DNI director involved in the execution of a domestic search warrant?

Plus, President Trump last night seemed to contradict his own border czar Tom Homan, who said earlier in the day, there are plans to reduce the number of federal officers in Minnesota. What is going on in that state? And we'll bring you the latest from Capitol Hill on a deal to avoid a government shutdown and how soon Congress could get it passed. Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It is Friday, January 30th, along with Willie and me. We have the co-host of our 9 a.m. hour, staff writer at the Atlantic, Jonathan Lemire, the host of Politics Nation on MS Now, Reverend Al Sharpton, he's the president of the National Action Network. And writer at large for the New York Times, Elizabeth Bue Miller joins us this morning.

And Willie, we start this morning back in Fulton County. Yeah, we want to know what's going on in Fulton County right now. A list of new questions this morning about that FBI search of a Fulton County election facility. Agencies hundreds of boxes of materials related to the 2020 presidential election. Apparently, as part of President Trump's false conspiracy theory that he only lost because the vote was rigged. The Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, an extraordinarily unusual move seen at the site of the FBI raid, Senate Democrats want to know why she's there. Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, leading the charge, asking what a domestic FBI investigation has to do with

the cabinet member who is tasked with handling international crises. This is Director of National Intelligence that is affirmatively moved to cut back the foreign malign influence center on elections? What the heck is she doing on the FBI serving a domestic warrant? If this doesn't concern the heck out of every American, it sure as hell should. This is a person who's got no business interfering in elections. This morning, there's new reporting from the Wall Street Journal that details Gabbard's role leading the administration effort to reexamine those 2020 election results. The journal reports she's been sidelined from traditional DNI duties and did not play any meaningful role in the Venezuela mission, but she has begun studying information about voting machines,

whatever that means, analyzed data from swing states, and pursued theories that President Trump has promoted to claim the 2020 election was taken from him. Gabbard regularly has briefed both the president and chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and is expected to prepare a report. President Trump was asked last night about Gabbard's role. She's working very hard on trying to keep the election safe, and she's done a very good job, and as you know, they got into the votes. You've got to sign Judge's Order in Georgia, and you're going to see some interesting things happening.

They've been trying to get there for a long time. We've got the man to talk to on this subject, the chief political reporter for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Greg Bluesteen. He's also an MS-Now contributor. Greg, when we see your face, we know there's either a close election in Georgia or something strange going on around a close election in Georgia. So here we are back in 2020. Let's just take a step back from your reporting from the sources that you have on the ground. What exactly is the grounds for this search warrant to begin with?

And then we can get into Tulsi Gabbard's role. Yeah. And you're right. There's two things going on. There's this close election and it was strange, something strange going on. But the grounds, really local officials. say there are no grounds. This is an election that's done in behind us, right? Six years ago now. But yet, you know, these false claims of election fraud still persist, and it's been one of the

fixations from not just the president, but also his allies to so doubt and concerns about that 2020 election. And, you know, as shocking and surprising as it was, the timing of the raid on the Fulton County election site, also fix. leaders here have been preparing for that, right? It has been something that the president has hinted at since he recaptured the White House. And so I know I've been getting texts on and off for months saying it could be today. It could be today when something like this happened. So it was stunning the scope of it.

It was stunning the timing of it. And I wouldn't say it actually caught some figures, at least here, completely off guard because of the president's hinting that this would happen. As for Tulsi Gabbard, oh, sorry. No, that's okay. Keep going. As for Tulsi Gabbard, you were saying? Yeah, as for Tulsi Gabbard, I was on the scene, you know, minutes after I got a tip that

this raid was happening. And you know, federal officials, you know, as a reporter on the scene, you're just trying to figure out what's happening. And I got a text from a federal official saying Tulsi Gabbard and a senior FBI agent will be on the scene at 6 p.m. And this was maybe two or three p.m. And I did a double take because why? Why Tulsi Gabbard?

It was the immediate question that we had on the ground there. Of all the people who the Trump administration could have sent, that was not on our bingo card that morning. Yeah. You pointed out that it was a federal prosecutor in Missouri, who was recently appointed by President Trump, that signed the warrant for the Raiden Fulton County, not the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.

His name does not appear on the warrant at all. Is there any significance to that? And what is the reaction? You said some folks were not surprised at all. Were they prepared? What do they think the feds are going for? Yeah, well, yeah, the name on the warrant was the U.S. attorney from Missouri. So that, another confounding thing for local officials here,

because the local U.S. attorney who was appointed by the, the president. His name was not on there. So some of the reporting that's come out has shown from Bloomberg, from Bloomberg law has shown that that attorney, U.S. attorney from Missouri has been given sort of special authorization to pursue election integrity cases. That might be one reason. There are other speculations surrounding Dominion, which is the voting machines that Georgia used. That company was bought by a company based in Missouri. So there's local officials, again, are just, again, some of them weren't surprised that this happened. They were surprised by the timing.

But all that has come out since has confounded people, and there's still so many questions just piling up on each other about this investigation. Greg, we'll remind our viewers that back in November of 2020, the vote in Georgia was counted once, then it was counted again. And then in December of 2020, it was counted a third time, Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, a Republican who supported President Trump said, we want to make sure we got it right. We did.

This puts this to rest. Joe Biden won the state of Georgia. So I'm curious this morning, how is Secretary of State Raffensberger? How is Governor Kemp, both of whom rebuked Donald Trump back then, despite the fact they are Republicans who said they supported him generally? How are they responding to what's going on right now? Yeah, so far, they are keeping rather silent.

Secretary of State Raffensberger is now running for the Republican nomination to be governor. of Georgia. And so he's locked in a really fierce battle against Lieutenant Governor Bert Jones, who has Trump's endorsement in another Republican Attorney General Chris Carr. So he has to capture some of the MAGA base. So he's been kind of treading lightly around this issue in some sense. While at the same time, he's rejected the Trump administration's attempts to get Georgia voting record saying that he won't hand them over to a third party without certain controls, certain guardrails. As for Governor Kemp, he is in a rather strange position himself as well,

because this long feud that we've been talking about, we've been chronicling the last six years or so between him and Donald Trump, it's reached a not just tentative truce, it's reached a truce that's actually held for the last year or so. And so I don't think he wants to do anything to upset that truth. So he has been very, very cautious about any sort of criticism or concern that he is publicly displaying towards Donald Trump. I have no indication about his private concerns, but I know in the past he's had many, many private misgivings about where the Trump direction, the Trump narrative has gone.

And Tulsi Gabbard's presence is there wholly inappropriate, but in some ways not surprising. She has for many years been sort of conspiracy-minded, and she's fallen out of favor in the Trump White House, and many perceive this is her effort to get back in Trump's good graces. This is obviously about 2020, but many Democrats I've talked to say, well, it's also about 2026. It's also about 2028. You'll undermine trust in elections, to be sure. But what else are local officials, Georgia officials, Fulton County officials telling you about what their fears are

as to what this means for these next couple of elections? Yeah, you're exactly right. For Trump, it might be about 2020. For local Republicans here, it's about the next two elections, because the fear in Georgia, the fear in Fulton County for Democrats and for voting rights, advocates, and even some Republicans, is that this could be a pretext for a state law that passed after the 2020 election.

It gives the state the power to intervene in local elections if there is an investigation, if there's some sort of reason to do so. And local officials feel this is the pretext that Trump allies on the state election board are looking for to take over the Fulton Fulton County election. This is Georgia's most populous county. It's also one of the biggest Democratic strongholds in Georgia. So if the state election board, which is a five-member board,

but three of them are close Trump allies, is able to take over the Fulton County election system, then advocates here are worried that they could make pretty significant changes that could limit voting rights going into the 2026 midterms and the election thereafter. All right, Chief Political Reporter for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Greg Bluestin, thank you so much. And Elizabeth B. Miller, there's a lot going on. And, you know, whether it's Minnesota, an update on the killings there, you had Homan there yesterday. And then the president seemed to be confusing what Hohman said he was doing. And the latest post, I think, Lamar, you pointed out to me, was the president pretty much turning on Alex Pretti. And because of the new video that has

surface that the president, I guess, finally saw of him kicking a taillight. Yeah, very briefly, just saying he calls Prattie an agitator and perhaps an insurrectionist. It goes on to condemn what he did in the first video, clearly, you know, sort of undermine the stories that have been built around Prattie since his death. So you got a little bit of a chaos going on here and there and everywhere, and then this Fulton's county story playing out. I'm just wondering big picture, what stands out to you about what's happening in Fulton County? What questions does it raise in your mind?

Well, I think Jonathan was right. I think it's, there's a number of things going on. One is that it certainly creates uncertainty, or they're trying to create uncertainty around the 2026 midterms coming up this fall and also about 2028. Tulsi Gabbard is, yes, has had a very rocky year,

first year in the administration. She is out of favor, where she was out of favor. It's almost as if they have given her a job. She was kept out of any kind of planning for Venezuela, which would have been part of her purview. And now she's, so now she, according to officials, some officials who've talked to the Times, she is given the job of looking for foreign influence

in a number of states, you know, in a number of states' elections in 2020. That could keep her busy for the rest of this year. But it really is about creating uncertainty. And it's also just about the continuing chaos in this administration as we, you know, careen from one crisis to the next. And right now it seems to be Fulton County

and the president turning again on Alex Preti after being advised to cool it and is now back to sort of normal Trump behavior and going after him. And also undermining what his new borders are is saying in Minneapolis, who's saying we're going to calm things down. We're going to pull back Trump

forces. And of course, he said last night at the Kennedy Center, that's not the case. So it's back to just more of the Trump chaos. He's talking about striking Iran. It goes on and on and on. He's still, there's, there's, you know, negotiations over Greenland, which are not going well. So it's kind of like every week there's a new absolute crisis. Yeah, much more on Minneapolis and Iran in a few minutes. But Rev, back to Georgia for a minute. Let's take a second and recognize why this matters in some ways. We know Trump was galled that he lost it. We all remember the phone call to Secretary of State Raffinsberg urging him to find those 11,000 or so votes he needed. It was a big deal for Democrats. The Georgia flipped for President Biden in 2020, though Kamala Harris lost it narrowly four years later.

Just remind people who votes there and why Fulton County sort of is seen as a symbol and of an ascendant, perhaps Democratic Party, what the future of the Democratic Party could look like? Well, you have a major part of the voting block there, the black community. Fulton County certainly represents that. And you must remember that we're not talking just theory to 28. Senator Ossoff is up for re-election, and he was the first Jewish senator. And you had Raphael Warnock, who's been elected, who was the first. black. So Georgia really showed not only with the Biden win later that we can put a black

and a Jew who in the past history of Georgia would have been unthinkable to be in the U.S. Senate, in the U.S. Senate. So as you reconfigurate now, the voting that they're investigating to try and discredit so they can impose their friendly voting authorities over Fulton County. or they have strategic reasons that give us historic nervousness about what they're trying to do, and it would reverberate all the way around the country. If Georgia falls, they feel that it would send a message everywhere, and it would impact all the way to 28. All right, we've got a lot more ahead pertaining to this story.

Also still ahead on Morning Joe, a live report from Minneapolis. After President Trump last night appeared to contradict Borders'ar, Tom Holman's remark. about plans to draw down the federal presence in Minnesota. Plus, the latest from Capitol Hill, as Senate Democrats and President Trump reach a funding deal ahead of tonight's government shutdown deadline, and as we go to break, a quick look at the Travelers' Forecast this morning

from Accuweather's Bernie Reno. Bernie, how's it looking? Well, happy Friday, yes, but the weather's not yay in the Northeast. The cold continues. your acuity weather forecast, 17, Boston and New York City, 14 in Pittsburgh. It's dry, it's cold. In the southeast, it's the calm before the storm. Some sunshine 55 degrees in Atlanta, 43 in Charlotte.

We are looking for a snowstorm this weekend, Friday night, Saturday, across South Carolina, North Carolina, and boy, plenty of cold this weekend in Florida. If you're doing any traveling, your acuether travel forecast, a few showers in Miami, but there's not going to be any delays. Have a great weekend. make the best decisions and be more in the note. Download the acque weather happened today. No other military in the world could have executed the most sophisticated, powerful raid, not just in American history, I would say in world history. Under your leadership, you've ended

at least eight wars, okay? But probably the most important and underreported war that this president ended was Joe Biden and the Democrats war on Main Street. Thanks to you, the Trump accounts and next generations America will benefit from today's record, I think 2026 is going to be the year for the Trump boom. You are fixing everything with your policies. You have changed America and created the Golden Age. I mean, I can't. I mean, William, I just, how do you characterize that, that scene?

It's a scene of like... North Korean is one way, I guess. That's a good one. It's very, it's very dear leader. First of all, the heroes of D-Day will be shocked to know. that the Venezuela raid was the most impressive raid in the history of the world. But also just the Jonathan Lemire, something we've talked about in the past, which is the alleged alpha energy that's supposed to be coming out of the Trump Republican Party.

It just doesn't get more beta than what you see around that table once a month. No, bend the knee and praise the president. He kept it shorter this time. He said, oh, we'll skip some of the members. which is noted. Well, you know he fell asleep last time. Yeah, I was going to say. He also perhaps allowed him to keep his eyes open.

He kept things moving to stay away. So used to flatterly. So we didn't hear from Secretary Nome, which many people were eager to. But Mika, there was no doubt that there was no shortage of, shall we say, over the top, praise of President Trump's. Fair to say, don't need to light hair on fire. That's not normal. No.

That's not normal. Yeah, well, I think. That's not normal. And jumping around, jumping into every topic just to jump to the president's defense, even when it doesn't make any sense. And you like are bashing through amendments just for the president. It's not normal. It's not normal, but the disturbing thing, I think, is that it tells us we have a president that is in such need and has such insecurity. Do foreign governments play on that?

Do people in business planning? If you can understand he is that needy, then it can be manipulated by anybody, which could occur to the detriment of the country. It's not like the Americans didn't know about this. He won the election. This is what he did his first term. He needed very much for everyone to desperately disgrace themselves in front of him. So that was some of just some of it, the lavish praise heaped yesterday on the president

from members of his cabinet. This time, though, he didn't go to the whole group, as we mentioned, complaining the last meeting went far too long. There were just far too many great things to say about him. But he insisted he didn't fall asleep. He was just closing his eyes. As Jonathan mentioned, among the several cabinet members who did not speak was Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noem.

But she did appear on Fox News last night, continuing to defend her agency and ICE operations in the aftermath of two deadly. shootings by agents in Minnesota. Sean Hannity asked her whether some statements she and others and the Trump administration made shortly after both incidents were perhaps made prematurely. Well, Sean, I know you realize that that situation was very chaotic and that we were being relayed information from on the ground from CBP agents and officers that were there. We were using the best information we had at the time seeking to be transparent with the American people and get them what we knew to be true on the ground. So we will continue to follow the investigation that the

FBI is leading and giving them all the information that they need to bring that to the conclusion and make sure that the American people know the truth of the situation and how we can go forward and continue to protect the American people. People seem to be upset over the term domestic terrorism. Why do you believe that's appropriate because you used it in both cases? Well, Sean, we're continuing to gather information. And the FBI leading this investigation is important to make sure that we talk about both these situations appropriately. In the Renee Good situation, you know, we have more information as it happened previously and we'll continue to get to the truth of all of this. But we can't distract from the fact

of how we got here. And we got here because we had a Biden administration that, allowed an invasion over our southern border. So actually, the FBI leading the investigation in both cases, is extremely disturbing and also not normal, and also does not help restore any, even a tiny bit of public trust. One of the big problems in both the killings of Renee Good, shot at point-blank range, one shot right in the front car window through her head. and the killing of Alex Pretti, which actually took five ICE agents to get him down to the ground

and two ICE agents to pepper his body with bullets after he was disarmed. The problem with the FBI leading the investigation, the federal authorities leading the investigation, is that the head of the FBI was also one of the people who rushed to judgment and criticized Alex Pretty for doing something completely legal, which was having a legal firearm on his. him, which was taken away before they shot him. Two U.S. citizens shot dead in the street, and Christy Nome is saying it's so great that the FBI has taken the investigation away from the state. And if you dig a little deeper, even in Hennepin County, all the state officials would very much like their investigations back, please. They would very much like the evidence

back, please, a federal judge ruled in the case of Alex Pretti that evidence cannot be destroyed yet. Where is his gun? Where are the shell casings? From the shooting of Alex Pretti? Where's the evidence from the scene that was quickly whisked the way? Where are the ICE officers? Who are they? What exactly is the status of the ICE officer who shot Renee Good? Is he on desk duty? We asked repeatedly on this show whether or not the two officers,

Two ICE agents who shot Alex Prettie pointing their guns down toward the ground where he was with his hands showing. So a lot of people call that kind of execution-style shooting. Some are calling it murder. An investigation would help. But not an investigation done by the people who prejudged these cases. Within an hour, they judged the person who appears to be from all video. all regular, normal people who saw what happened appears to be the victim. But we don't know.

You want an investigation. And yet you take the investigation away from the very people who should be doing the investigation because it is their jurisdiction. And that is the law. It's also their community. And they will do a better job. And, you know, when you detain people who are witnesses and you detain people who saw it, That's scary.

That scares people and that instills on top of all this chaos bred by ICE agents just marauding through town and breaking in cars and houses. That scares people and adds to the already created chaos by the government. So one thing that would really help is if the state could have their investigations back, please, so that these two killings at close range could be investigated in a real way that the public would trust. So meanwhile, during his news conference yesterday, Borders Tsar Tom Homan, acknowledged that mistakes had been made. So you have one person in the government acknowledging that mistakes had been made by federal officers in Minnesota. I think Stephen Miller also said that procedure or protocol wasn't followed. Okay, well, that's the start, but then where's the investigation? Give it back.

the state, adding Homan that he wants to make the operation safer, more efficient, and by the book, he also said there could be a drawdown. There could be a drawdown of agents there. But President Trump last night appeared to contradict him. Will you be pulling back immigration enforcement agents out of Minnesota? We want to keep our country safe. We'll do whatever we can to keep our country safe. So not pulling back? No, no, not at all. Again, contradicting what Tom Homan said earlier in the day. A new report details the ongoing power struggle behind the scenes of President Trump's immigration enforcement efforts,

as officials overseeing the campaign fight amongst each other for power. Joining us now, staff writer at the Atlantic Michael Scherer. He co-wrote the piece titled Battles Are Raging Inside the Department of Homeland Security. Michael, good morning. So among which members of the cabinet are these battles raging? So for quite a while now, there have been two camps when it comes to how the department, how the deportation should proceed in two camps when it comes to how the wall on the border should be built. Tom Holman, who you just saw there, and Rodney Scott, the head of Customs and Border

Patrol, are in one camp. On the other side, you have Christy Knoem and her top deputies, including Corey Lewandowski, her functioning chief of staff, a special government employee, who have been pushing for more aggressive measures. You know, when Greg Bevino was in Minnesota, he wasn't reporting to his boss, the head of CBP, he's a CBP officer. He was reporting basically around his boss to Nome, and Rodney Scott had made clear he wasn't comfortable with the methods Bevino was using. Tom Homan made very clear yesterday that he also had concerns with how things have been going. So you've had sort of a shake-up. The president has acknowledged in this power.

struggle. You know, the president from the first term, the second term, doesn't mind these disagreements. He doesn't mind having people fight amongst themselves below him. But the fight is very much still live. On Monday, we reported Rodney Scott put out a memo to CBP, an email saying, I just want to remind you all, I'm in charge of this agency, everything comes through me. And two days later, the General Counsel of Department of Homeland Security effectively rescinded that memo, saying it hadn't gone through legal review. So, So there's very much a bureaucratic war still ongoing inside the department. So Michael, there's a lot of attention being paid to Tom Holman right now that he's in Minnesota.

I think the piece does a really good job explaining something that the goals of these two camps are actually pretty similar. The disagreement is over tactics and how it done. Can you flesh that out for those watching? Yeah, this isn't really an ideological disagreement. My co-author, Nick Mirov, puts it by saying this is a divide between, institutional MAGA and a more disruptive MAGA. Noam has taken her marching orders from Stephen Miller,

who's been really driving the government to meet these benchmarks. There's quotas for daily arrests, trying to get the wall built quicker. Holman and Scott are people who came up through the bureaucracy. They're lifelong agents. There's a way of doing things. They're law enforcement officers. They actually understand that there are reasons for the paperwork and the rules and the caution you take in approaching these.

things because things can go out of control like they did in Minneapolis. There's no doubt, I think, at this point, in the White House and the administration that what happened last weekend was not good. I mean, you have everybody walking back. The president was very clear he wanted de-escalation, and that's what they're bringing about. Everyone says the same thing, which is we're going after the worst of the worst. We're going after criminals. And if we come across other undocumented immigrants along the way, they will be detained to. How that plays out in practice is very different. in the two camps. It's not really being discussed. You know, Bovino basically was encouraging people to look everywhere.

And, you know, we had reports that Miller was saying, you know, go to parking lots and look for anybody you can find. That's not going after the worst of the worst. That's just picking people up. Holman has made clear that he's much more interested in a more targeted approach where you actually do have a list of names of people with criminal records. He is clear that, you know, if we find undocumented immigrants along the way, they will be detained to and deported. But the suggestion here is that he's not going to be quite as aggressive in just trying to stop cars on the street to get people out of the country. Yeah. And Elizabeth Buehler,

I mean, Tom Holman used the word drawdown. He alluded to some sort of deal about focusing on the prisons, working with the governor about that. I mean, I think in his press conference and in his statements, he alluded to changes coming, but then the president completely undermining it later in the day. What questions might you have for Michael? Well, I would ask you, what's interesting to me is that what Tom Holman is doing seems to be supported by a majority of Americans that go after the criminals. That is what people thought they were voting for when they voted for Donald Trump. We need to get the criminals out of the country. And it would seem to me that Christy Noam, is undercutting that effort by the tactics they're using. So the question I have is,

shouldn't Donald Trump be supporting what Tom Homan is saying? It would be more acceptable to Americans. Yeah, there's definitely a real tension here. If you could, remember the first term, we had the child separation policy. Miller was driving it. The goal of that policy was deterrence. Like the cruelty of that, the struggles that went around that was deterrence. We have seen something similar happening here. I mean, the Bovino spectacle of going in and militarizing all these cities was meant to intimidate, was meant to scare people. And that is not politically popular. And you saw in the first term, they had to pull back from the child separation policy. I think there's a pullback happening here. I don't think we know how long that's going to

last. We don't know if this is permanent. We know the president felt burned over the weekend. And everyone has pulled back this week, including Christyneome, from the aggressive, tactics. But we don't know, you know, when the next city will be targeted and whether some of these methods will return and whether this fight, which is, as I said, very live, you know, whether Holman and Scott continue to have the upper hand. Well, and you bring up, we don't know whether what's going to happen in the future, whether there's going to be a drawdown. There's already been so much damage done. I mean, there are so many cases that are hanging out there and some that haven't even been addressed of people who've been abused.

had their rights violated, who were separated from their families, children involved. This is still very much a mess, for sure. The new reporting is online now for the Atlantic. Staff writer Michael Shera, thank you very much for your reporting this morning. And writer at large for the New York Times, Elizabeth Bue Miller. Thank you as well for coming on this morning. And coming up, we'll get a live report from Minneapolis where more protests are expected today, as President Trump says his ICE operations are.

not pulling back. Plus, the president now is suing the IRS. We'll dig into his reason behind that lawsuit. Morning Joe, we'll be right back. A nonprofit called Minneapolis Foundation has announced it will distribute $3.5 million in grants to help small businesses impacted by the surge of federal agents there. The grants will be funded by several of Minnesota's largest companies, including Target, General Mills, and U.S. Bank. The Foundation CEO says the money, which is set to be distributed beginning next week, will be used to help small businesses navigate challenges like meeting payroll and paying rent.

Joining us live from Minneapolis, MS Now reporter, Nambi Iganwu, who's been speaking with small business owners across the city. Nambi, good to see you again this morning. So let's begin with what the impact actually has been in recent weeks on small businesses of this presence, of people staying home and not going out and conducting their usual daily lives. Well, you know, we've been here the last several weeks talking to several small business owners, and we've heard a consistent theme. There's just less foot traffic in an area like downtown Minneapolis,

for instance, when there's thousands of federal agents that descend here, people, whether you're an immigrant or not, just aren't going outside as much. They don't want to come into close encounters. And many just residents we've spoken to, those that are citizens have pointed to the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Freddie in saying, we're concerned, too, about going outside. So the number one thing we're hearing is just there's less foot traffic. Now, the next big issue is that if you're an immigrant-run business, specifically in the Somali hubs here and the Mexican hubs here, there's a fear that your employees may feel that are preventing them from going into work, a fear that they may find themselves caught up in the cross here of immigration enforcement deaths for trying to do their jobs. So those have been the two larger issues we're hearing, but we also started to get actual hard data from the city. So Meet Minneapolis. That's the city's tourism board, public facing board. They did a survey about 500 businesses. We're talking restaurants, hotels, shops, the whole, you know, shops of that nature. And basically what they found out is of that group, 80% says their business has been affected by ICE's presence here. And nearly all of them said the way that impact has looked is just reduced bookings, reduced sales. The mayor of St. Paul

said much of the same thing that she's been surveying businesses and the consistent thing they're hearing businesses down anywhere between 60 to 70%. So there is a widespread issue here. I want to play for you some of my conversation with business owners so you can get a sense of what they're telling me. Everybody there is still really scared to go outside. Customers are still going to go outside. We can't get anybody to work and we still honestly don't want to, you know, put people at risk. Honestly, obviously that will affect our income. We haven't had, you know, like legit or regular income for, you know, for a month now almost. If we don't see a change happen anytime soon, a lot of businesses are already thinking on bankruptcy, closing, and there's a lot of jobs lost,

a lot of people being affected. We're not collecting taxes for our government, our state government, a lot of programs are going to be hurt. The moral of our staff is very important. Even myself, I have my passport with me all the time. Even though I was coming here, I had to take my passport. So this is like the fear we live here in Minnesota. So, you know, I think a point that I've heard pretty consistently I want to highlight there is these businesses recognize that the more ICE impacts their ability to provide their services or goods. the more the state's going to be impacted by that, that means less revenue, less tax collection.

So it may just feel like an issue that's mostly impacting immigrants, but if this is prolonged, there is going to be an impact felt by people throughout this entire state. MS now is Domdi Iguanwu reporting live for us from Minneapolis. Thank you very much for your reporting this morning. Senate Democrats and the White House have reached an agreement to prevent a partial government shutdown and temporarily fund the Department of Homeland. and security amid talks over new limits on the White House's immigration enforcement push. Both sides have agreed to separate DHS funding from the other legislation in the package

and fund DHS for two weeks and to allow for negotiations on the Democrats' demands. The Senate is looking to vote today. The House will need to pass the legislation on Monday. Reverend L. first of all, DHS has so much money in that big, whatever you want to call it, Bill. They got an unprecedented amount of money to fund them. They could go quite some time. What do you make of this?

And you have the perfect guest, actually, book this weekend to talk more about this on the politics of it. Well, what I make of it, there are many saying that we should just disband ice, end ice, altogether. other. The fact is that you need to be able to, as they still exist, deal with what kind of reforms you're going to implement because they have so much money left, even if they were cut out of this budget, they can continue to fund themselves unless there are some guardrails put that they cannot do certain things. Things like body cameras and other things are worth being to discuss. And so I do have a House minority leader. to Hakeem or Jeffries on this weekend.

Because I want to talk about how do we put guardrails on while we negotiate to see if, in fact, their ICE is eliminated and what would a new structure look like? And then what happens to the surplus of money that ICE has whether you cut them out of this budget or not? Yeah, sort of delaying the battle for a little bit here. I mean, that this is, you know, even some Republicans realize they couldn't vote full funding for DHS, but the government will stay open. And we'll feel some impacts, perhaps airports and other TSA and related agencies. But this now, there'll be contentious negotiations down the road.

Certainly right. ICE is not going to run out of money. But this is a political statement going forward into the midterms. And the news doesn't top. We'll be covering throughout the weekend on MS now and watching your show tomorrow, Rep. All right. President Trump has announced Kevin Warsh as his pick for the next Fed chair, a former Fed governor and vocal critic of the Fed's current approach to interest rates. Warsh has long been on the short list to succeed

current Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Warsh lost out on the top job to Powell back in 2017, and Trump has previously expressed regret over not picking the 55-year-old. Warsh's nomination now heads to the Senate for confirmation, a process that has been complicated by the Justice Department's investigation into Powell. Some senators have said they won't confirm many pick until the probe is resolved. Yeah, the president had made clear that his shortlist was his two, as he put it, my two Kevin's, Kevin Warsh, as well as Kevin Hassett, who we see all the time. He's sort of front-facing economic advisor.

And he went with Warsh, who did serve as a Fed governor during the 2008 financial crisis there from 2006 to 2011. His views have evolved about interest rates. And we know the president favors cuts to interest rates. Warsh has suggested he would follow that. suggestion. This comes to a couple days after the current Fed kept rates level, didn't cut this time. And then, yes, you're right to highlight the Jerome Powell piece of this, where first of all, there is the open investigation, which may slow down confirmation

proceedings. But then secondly, Powell resisted pressure from the White House. Instead, he was going to do what he thought was best for the economy. Warsh, you know, his views more aligned with Trump, but will he ever be able to tell Trump no, the fact that he's being handpicked like this would seem to suggest your answer. We'll follow that more with Andrew Sorkin in our 9-am hour.