Speaker 1: Hey, good morning folks. It is Saturday, January seventeenth, and
Speaker 1: as of this recording, it is eight degrees in Minneapolis.
Speaker 1: It feels like one below, and by this evening is
Speaker 1: gonna feel like eight below. But would you believe things
Speaker 1: are actually getting hotter in Minneapolis?
Speaker 2: With that?
Speaker 1: Welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robes. Really,
Speaker 1: people had a lot of hopes, and we're coming on
Speaker 1: this Saturday morning because there have been significant developments overnight,
Speaker 1: but a lot of people really felt like the best
Speaker 1: chance maybe for things to calm down, it's gonna be freezing.
Speaker 1: Nobody wants to go out in that stuff.
Speaker 3: Right exactly, be bad whether this week.
Speaker 4: There have been studies about violence in cities and how
Speaker 4: it relates to temperature, and it is a known fact
Speaker 4: that hotter climates tend to have more crime because people
Speaker 4: are out in the streets and are comfortable out there
Speaker 4: saying and doing whatever they want.
Speaker 3: Yeah, when it's that cold, people are like, I feel passionate, but.
Speaker 4: That's too uncomfortable for me, even for a Minnesotan who
Speaker 4: is used to this kind of weather. This is brutal stuff.
Speaker 4: And yeah, the hope was that people would just let
Speaker 4: the cooler temperatures cool their temperature.
Speaker 1: And it hasn't happened. And we should say and again
Speaker 1: we're coming on because there have been developments yesterday and
Speaker 1: one of the major ones robes and we talked about
Speaker 1: it getting hotter there, but the heat is not necessarily
Speaker 1: coming from the temperatures there in Minneapolis. The heat is
Speaker 1: coming from Washington, DC. The heat is going towards Tim
Speaker 1: Watts and Jacob fry the mayor of Minneapolis. And so
Speaker 1: the major development robes that this thing has taken off
Speaker 1: is that now the Department of Justice is opening a
Speaker 1: criminal investigation of the two leaders essentially of what we've
Speaker 1: been seeing going on in that state.
Speaker 4: And this shouldn't be that shocking because this is now Unfortunately,
Speaker 4: it seems par for the course that if you disagree
Speaker 4: with the administration and if you go against or you
Speaker 4: oppose what the administration is doing or saying, you subject
Speaker 4: yourself potentially to a DOJ investigation.
Speaker 3: That is what we have seen.
Speaker 4: And so yes, Tim Waltz and Jacob Frye are the
Speaker 4: two latest political folks who are now being threatened with
Speaker 4: criminal charges by the Trump administration.
Speaker 1: Perceived right perceived political enemies as we seem to like
Speaker 1: to say, but these perceived enemies might be dragged into
Speaker 1: a courtroom. We'll give you the details of that and
Speaker 1: what they said in response to that. The other major
Speaker 1: headline is that there has been a ruling by a judge,
Speaker 1: a federal judge about what ICE agents can and cannot
Speaker 1: do with protesters there in the streets. Will explain that.
Speaker 1: Also don't know if this is a flip flop or not,
Speaker 1: but the President sounded like he was going direction of
Speaker 1: the Insurrection Act. Now it seems like he is backed
Speaker 1: off that little bit. So, yes, a lot of developments overnight,
Speaker 1: and who knows what kind of a weekend is going
Speaker 1: to be. So we just wanted to hop on and
Speaker 1: give you this update. But Robes, Yes, like you said,
Speaker 1: the big headline and multiple outlets are reporting this that, yes,
Speaker 1: the mayor of Minneapolis and the governor of Minnesota are
Speaker 1: being criminally investigated now by the Department of Justice for
Speaker 1: what is being called a conspiracy to obstruct federal agents.
Speaker 3: By their public statements.
Speaker 4: They are, basically, according to the DOJ or, according to
Speaker 4: this investigation, they are impeding federal agents' ability to do
Speaker 4: their jobs by basically riling up the public by their
Speaker 4: public statements, they have incited some sort of anti government
Speaker 4: sentiment that has created the situation or an insurrection, avoid
Speaker 4: that word. I was trying to find another way. But yes,
Speaker 4: they say that through their public statements they have impeded
Speaker 4: federal immigration agents from doing their jobs, and that is
Speaker 4: a criminal charge.
Speaker 1: But again, like we say Robes and in some places
Speaker 1: that are describing this as I guess an extraordinary right
Speaker 1: now moment in which the temperature is going off like
Speaker 1: this is once again an extraordinary step, like you almost
Speaker 1: can't believe an unprecedented step once again being taken by
Speaker 1: the president. But the thing is is this president it
Speaker 1: seems like he's been doing this quite a bit. If
Speaker 1: you want to go with Lisa Cook, you want to
Speaker 1: go with Komi, you want to go with Letitia James,
Speaker 1: who else you want to go? We want to go
Speaker 1: with Mark Kelly as of late, but it seemed like
Speaker 1: if you take a stance against him publicly or come
Speaker 1: after him, he will absolutely come back. And he's got
Speaker 1: the entire federal law enforcement agency at his disposal.
Speaker 4: Yes, it's concerning, and when you have legal experts and
Speaker 4: folks weighing in saying things like the right to condemn
Speaker 4: government action without fear of government punishment is the foundation
Speaker 4: of the First Amendment.
Speaker 3: That was a quote by a.
Speaker 4: Legal expert, and yeah, I thought that is what this
Speaker 4: country was based on.
Speaker 3: Sore.
Speaker 4: Where is the right to free speech? Where is the
Speaker 4: right to condemn our leaders? That is one of the
Speaker 4: principles and foundations of this country. And if by doing
Speaker 4: so you now subject yourself to criminal prosecution by that
Speaker 4: same federal government, that is some scary, scary stuff. And
Speaker 4: that is what we are looking at right now.
Speaker 1: We are not the United States of America anymore. We
Speaker 1: have become in some of our behavior. This is not political,
Speaker 1: which it's undeniable that some of the things we're seeing
Speaker 1: are things we read about in social studies classes about things.
Speaker 1: This is why we are better. This is why the
Speaker 1: United States broke free from other places. That's why we
Speaker 1: didn't follow what other places we're doing.
Speaker 2: This is why we stood.
Speaker 1: At that beacon that we stand as, that beacon of
Speaker 1: freedom of hope because we see this shit going on
Speaker 1: anywhere around the world, we will step in and stop it.
Speaker 4: Yes, And that is what we were taught. That is
Speaker 4: what we believe But now if you are seeing your
Speaker 4: elected mayor or your elected governor speaking out against the
Speaker 4: federal government. They disagree with policy, they disagree with procedure,
Speaker 4: they disagree with their mode of operation, and now they're
Speaker 4: being criminally investigated.
Speaker 3: That So, if your governor can.
Speaker 4: Be criminally investigated, if your mayor can be criminally investigated
Speaker 4: for speaking out against federal government policy, what does that
Speaker 4: say to citizen Joe and citizen Jane.
Speaker 3: You have zero protection.
Speaker 4: If your elected leaders are now potentially facing criminal charges,
Speaker 4: that is a silencing blow to a lot of people.
Speaker 1: A political enemy is being hauled into a federal criminal.
Speaker 2: Investigation in the United States.
Speaker 1: That's not the United States.
Speaker 3: It's scary.
Speaker 4: There's no other word to describe what's happening, or the
Speaker 4: threat of what's happening, as anything other than frightening.
Speaker 1: But how do we have this conversation in which there
Speaker 1: I assume there's some people who see what's happening to
Speaker 1: Fry and Tim Waltson like, yeah, arrest them, this is
Speaker 1: how it should Why I don't I don't know how
Speaker 1: to hear a counter to someone saying this is what
Speaker 1: should happen. This is something other than political retribution. I
Speaker 1: don't know how to I regret, really don't, because I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to take a political stance.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you can disagree, that's fine, and everyone can disagree
Speaker 4: with one another. But if someone disagrees with you and
Speaker 4: you're the party in power, do you then get to
Speaker 4: arrest or charge that person?
Speaker 3: That's absurd.
Speaker 1: And I told you earlier this week to a day
Speaker 1: or two ago, arrest Tim Waltz was trending online. Now
Speaker 1: there's other stuff going on in that state having to
Speaker 1: do with the massive fraud investigations, and people are looking
Speaker 1: at him. The buck stops with him.
Speaker 3: Sure that's a different story, Yeah, sure, sure, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: It has nothing to do with what we're talking about here. Right,
Speaker 1: You are correct, these guys, by all accounts and including
Speaker 1: the ones coming from the OJ you're you're speaking out
Speaker 1: publicly in a way that's against what the federal government
Speaker 1: is trying to do. Therefore, you are involved in the
Speaker 1: conspiracy to obstruct and that is a crime. It's a stretch,
Speaker 1: but it is a crime. And I'm and look, we
Speaker 1: can go on and on. We're not trying to challenge
Speaker 1: the president. We're trying to challenge at least legally what
Speaker 1: all this stuff means. But we are journalists, we are students,
Speaker 1: and we have we know we are all in this country.
Speaker 1: We have been taught that when we see things like this,
Speaker 1: these are things that have led to war, oppression, people
Speaker 1: who have done these things as leaders of other countries,
Speaker 1: other countries come and intervene to stop that stuff from happening.
Speaker 1: This isn't freedom, this isn't democracy, This isn't that thing
Speaker 1: that we.
Speaker 4: Say we're based Oh yeah, leadership, but we're based that's
Speaker 4: that's not who we are.
Speaker 1: And we've had conversations here. We are nothing. We are
Speaker 1: little bitty nothing engines that could running a podcast doing
Speaker 1: our thing, broadcasting from a studio at the house. And
Speaker 1: we have absolutely had conversations about should we say that
Speaker 1: or go too far? That might piss off the wrong
Speaker 1: person having to do with the administration.
Speaker 4: And that's not how journalists should be operating. Never ever,
Speaker 4: never we're seeing it happen. Never crossed my mind in
Speaker 4: my career, never mind.
Speaker 3: Either, not once.
Speaker 4: In fact, I used to say, I went to this
Speaker 4: was years ago, an awards ceremony for the Society for
Speaker 4: the Protection of Journalists, and I was hearing stories from
Speaker 4: other countries about journalists who reported the truth or who
Speaker 4: investigated an administration, or and they died, and so you've
Speaker 4: got their photographer or their producer. I have chills going
Speaker 4: up to accept their honor on their behalf because they
Speaker 4: were killed. And I remember going to bed that night thinking,
Speaker 4: my god, how incredible is it? How grateful am I
Speaker 4: to live in a country where I could say something
Speaker 4: about the president of the United States and sleep soundly
Speaker 4: tonight knowing that I am not going to be targeted.
Speaker 3: I am going to be safe.
Speaker 4: My family's going to be safe because I live in
Speaker 4: the United States of America, and I'm a less than
Speaker 4: I can say and report on what I see or.
Speaker 1: You might get suboena these days. This is what we
Speaker 1: are in the subpoena. This is criminal stuff. And I
Speaker 1: know you mentioning that I hadn't thought about it until
Speaker 1: this moment. We've traveled plenty of places covered international events,
Speaker 1: and where you're bunking with or you're in a row
Speaker 1: with journalists from all over the world, they are there
Speaker 1: are in awe of the freedom you have and the
Speaker 1: things you get to say and the things you get
Speaker 1: to do.
Speaker 3: This is they're in awe of it, and now here
Speaker 3: we are and it's writing. It's funny.
Speaker 4: You just reminded me of when I was in China
Speaker 4: for a couple of weeks, and I remember I was
Speaker 4: with NBC News at that time, and they said, be
Speaker 4: careful of anything you write in your computer, any email
Speaker 4: you sent, any conversation you have. They are listening, they
Speaker 4: are watching. We don't know if your hotel rooms are bugged.
Speaker 4: We don't know what kind of access they may have
Speaker 4: to your basically your electronic news gathering. And that was
Speaker 4: this craziest thing to think about, to feel like you
Speaker 4: were being watched and you were being recorded, and you
Speaker 4: were being you had to be careful what you said
Speaker 4: and did.
Speaker 1: And now look, okay, look we want to give you
Speaker 1: these updates, but stay here, folks. We actually want to
Speaker 1: tell you we did hear from Mayor Fry and from
Speaker 1: Governor Waltz. Will tell you what they had to say
Speaker 1: about this. Also, the other major development, a judge issued
Speaker 1: a ruling about how federal agents can treat the protesters.
Speaker 1: We'll explain what that's about. And not sure if it's
Speaker 1: a flip flop, but Trump is going a little bit
Speaker 1: back and forth over the insurrection acts.
Speaker 2: Stay here, all.
Speaker 1: Right, folks, we'll continue here on this Saturday morning, January
Speaker 1: the seventeenth. Overnight developments out of Minneapolis. All eyes been
Speaker 1: on that city, of course, with the surge of federal
Speaker 1: agents going into that town. Of course, the President says
Speaker 1: this is to stop a local immigration It's also to
Speaker 1: keep an eye on the fraud scandal that's been going
Speaker 1: on there. But Mayor Fry, Governor Waltz will tell you
Speaker 1: this is just the president once again wielding power and
Speaker 1: coming after a democratic or progressive city robes. Overnight, things
Speaker 1: got a little calm. Yes, we should flat out say
Speaker 1: things were quieter last night. Things were colder, much much colder,
Speaker 1: and things did quiet down.
Speaker 4: Yes, the two might be related, that is fair to say.
Speaker 4: But yes, Thursday night overnight was a tough night. There
Speaker 4: were a lot of heated protests and some ugly exchanges.
Speaker 4: I believe a dozen folks arrested. Friday. Some of those
Speaker 4: clashes continued between protesters and ICE agents. But yes, overnight
Speaker 4: we looked and scoured the headlines and really didn't see
Speaker 4: much of anything in terms of anything other than a peaceful,
Speaker 4: peaceful protest. So things did get calmer overnight, but things
Speaker 4: did heat up online. We did hear Mayor Fry, We
Speaker 4: did hear from Governor Waltz, who did react to this
Speaker 4: notion or these reports that they are being federally investigated.
Speaker 1: Jacob Pry saying and Mayor Fry saying, this is an
Speaker 1: obvious attempt to intimidate me for standing up for Minneapolis
Speaker 1: local law enforcement and residents against the chaos and danger
Speaker 1: this administration has brought to our city. I will not
Speaker 1: be intimidated. My focus remains where it's always been, keeping
Speaker 1: our city safe. Now some islands are actually reporting, and
Speaker 1: Tim Walton Jacob Fry didn't directly mention you're not supposed
Speaker 1: to when it comes to I think there is some
Speaker 1: secrecy involved here, But there are reports that yes, they
Speaker 1: have received subpoenas.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 4: And Tim Waltz wrote this on x two days ago.
Speaker 4: It was Alyssa Slotkin, last week, it was Jerome Powell
Speaker 4: before that, Mark Kelly. Weaponizing the justice system against your
Speaker 4: opponents is an authoritarian tactic. The only person not being
Speaker 4: investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal
Speaker 4: agent who shot her, and we.
Speaker 1: Should remind her there that the investigation. Several prosecutors quit
Speaker 1: resigned in protest over the idea of this investigation. They
Speaker 1: say they were being pressured to take it in a
Speaker 1: direction of investigating renee Good instead of investigating the actual
Speaker 1: shooting and the agent and his actions. Pam Bondi did
Speaker 1: chime in as well on x I guess not a
Speaker 1: surprise here. She says, just quote a reminder to all
Speaker 1: those in Minnesota, no one is above the law. You
Speaker 1: can take it to mean whatever you want, but maybe
Speaker 1: pretty clear what's direction and who's she's directing that towards
Speaker 1: the other thing. Yesterday, Ropes was a lawsuit that's been
Speaker 1: going on since December having to do with some protests.
Speaker 1: Is ACL you brought this, but we had a ruling
Speaker 1: from the judge. Don't know how much impact it's going
Speaker 1: to have, but still making a lot of headlines.
Speaker 4: Yes, the judge issued basically a restraining order that would
Speaker 4: ban ICE agents from retaliating against peaceful protesters.
Speaker 3: You can't put tear gas. You can't.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of things that rubber bullets and tear
Speaker 4: gas have been dispersed, lots of reports of folks it's
Speaker 4: just inciting more anger and so the judge said, yes,
Speaker 4: you cannot retaliate against, arrest, detain or use chemical irritants
Speaker 4: against people engaging in peaceful protests. The problem is what
Speaker 4: is peaceful protesting? That is where the gray area is.
Speaker 4: When does it go from being peaceful to not peaceful?
Speaker 1: And they have to have some leeway in dispersing a crowd.
Speaker 1: They have to have I mean, these are tactics used
Speaker 1: when people are told to leave, to disperse and they don't.
Speaker 1: The police have to use in authorities some kind of tactic.
Speaker 1: How this is going to go, How impactful this is
Speaker 1: going to be? I don't know. How do you enforce?
Speaker 1: How do you tell an agent you can't stop cars
Speaker 1: that aren't obstructing? Yes, and of course you see that
Speaker 1: and you apply that to ruine Good. The shooting we
Speaker 1: just saw was that car obstructing? She should she have
Speaker 1: been bothered based on this ruling? Now, I don't know.
Speaker 1: And this one here, agents should be at an appropriate distance.
Speaker 2: Yea, all right.
Speaker 1: It does not by itself create reasonable suspicion to justify
Speaker 1: a vehicle stop. It's just it's vague and I don't
Speaker 1: know if this is a good tool that's going to
Speaker 1: help anything. There at all, but it happened, so it's
Speaker 1: making headlines at least.
Speaker 3: It's something it's putting.
Speaker 4: Perhaps I say this not fully knowing the weight of this,
Speaker 4: but it is putting ICE agents on notice that a
Speaker 4: judge is saying, I am ordering this, I am banning
Speaker 4: you from doing this.
Speaker 3: But if you feel like you have.
Speaker 4: The Trump administration's backing to do what you need to do,
Speaker 4: You're probably going to do whatever you feel like you
Speaker 4: need to do because you know you have the support
Speaker 4: of the administration.
Speaker 1: And it's taking them. Like in ninety seconds after that shooting,
Speaker 1: they were out defending Jonathan Ross think is his name,
Speaker 1: that shot Renee Good and the other shoot They're quick
Speaker 1: to defend their agents, and I'm sure that is good
Speaker 1: from a role at the agency to a certain degree,
Speaker 1: knowing that the folks in charge got you back.
Speaker 4: Yes, that's not always the case in a lot of
Speaker 4: corporate structures.
Speaker 3: So yes, that might be one thing.
Speaker 4: And then the other big headline, and you tease this
Speaker 4: is that Trump now seems to be backing away from
Speaker 4: his Insurrection Act threat. He's saying, Hey, it doesn't look
Speaker 4: like we need to do it now, but you know,
Speaker 4: I've got it in my back pocket.
Speaker 3: Basically, don't know what to make of it.
Speaker 1: He made those comments last night as he was leaving
Speaker 1: the White House, just talking to reporters. I haven't checked
Speaker 1: this morning. I'll give it a little while and see
Speaker 1: if he's tweeted something else. But the tweet he sent
Speaker 1: yesterday on thru Soldier this is I mean, he's been
Speaker 1: talking about this. It looks like we were leading up
Speaker 1: to that, and so many people in the administration, in
Speaker 1: their interviews and on their Twitter accounts, have been hinting
Speaker 1: at it. Looks like they were getting ready. But he
Speaker 1: backed it off a little bit last night.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he said, in Minnesota, the troublemakers, agitators and insurrectionists
Speaker 4: are in many cases highly paid professionals. The governor and
Speaker 4: mayor don't know what to do. They have totally lost
Speaker 4: control and are currently being rendered useless. If and when
Speaker 4: I am forced to act, it will be solved quickly
Speaker 4: and effectively. So that was him kind of teasing the
Speaker 4: Insurrection Act. But then yes, last night he said, I
Speaker 4: don't think there's any reason right now to use it,
Speaker 4: but if I needed it, I'd use it.
Speaker 1: Vague okay, but you're on notice. But those are the
Speaker 1: developments in Minneapolis. It is going to be a pretty
Speaker 1: brutal weather. We can even for them. Don't be wrong,
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 4: Oh yes, I think anytime you have sub zero temperatures
Speaker 4: as the actual I mean those are the real feel,
Speaker 4: but single digit actual temperature and then yes, below zero
Speaker 4: with the windshill's, that's intimidating for just about anybody, even
Speaker 4: a hearty Minnesota.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Five below today, five below on Monday. They're going into
Speaker 1: a pretty brutal stretch here.
Speaker 3: It might be for the best.
Speaker 4: It literally literally might cool things down and figuratively, I
Speaker 4: guess it's both.
Speaker 2: We can only hope.
Speaker 1: Ro So, yes, folks, we just want to hop on
Speaker 1: and give you a quick update here on this Saturday
Speaker 1: morning and while we were having our tea and having
Speaker 1: our coffee. But where you are, hope you're having a
Speaker 1: good start to your day. Enjoy the rest of your
Speaker 1: Saturday wherever you are right now. For Amy Robot im TJ. Holmes,
Speaker 1: we'll talk for you Alread