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