This is the Jan. 27, 2026, version of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” publication. Subscribe right here to get it delivered straight to your inbox Monday by Friday.
The Trump administration’s harmful ability in creating chaos quickens by the second.
Americans watched in horror as Alex Pretti was shot and killed Saturday by a masked federal officer at shut vary.
Then the Orwellian denials and character defamation spewing from White House officers and Homeland Security operatives.
Next, the FBI director and the Treasury secretary went on Sunday reveals justifying the killing as a result of Alex Pretti was legally carrying a firearm.
Most Republicans remained silent.
Then an outpouring of public outrage and calls for that Immigration and Customs Enforcement rein in its violent techniques.
Even hard-liners like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Sen. Ted Cruz demanded de-escalation.
In a uncommon show of nerve, 10 Republican senators known as for a full investigation into Pretti’s dying.
Yesterday, the president reached out to Minnesota’s governor and the mayor of Minneapolis, pledging federal cooperation. Shortly after these calls, information that ICE commander-at-large Greg Bovino was reassigned, with Kristi Noem met with the president for a two-hour assembly.
The Homeland Security secretary ought to be fired now. Her lies have eroded public belief in immigration enforcement, and her company’s brutality has shaken Americans throughout the political spectrum.
The dizzying de-escalation from this weekend’s violence got here as shortly as the White House’s escalation of violence in opposition to U.S. residents.
What occurs subsequent is anybody’s guess. But one factor is for certain: Alex Pretti and Renee Good are useless.
“The misleading rhetoric coming out of the administration needs to stop. Mr. President, the American people didn’t vote for these scenes, and you can’t continue to order them to not believe their lying eyes.”
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Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post on the authorities’s dystopian claims relating to its brutal crackdown in Minnesota
WINTER STORM FERN BY THE NUMBERS
SOURCES: NOAA, The Guardian, Flightaware, Yahoo News, Newsweek
ON THIS DAY
BETTMAN ARCHIVE Bettmann Archive
On this date in 1976, “Laverne & Shirley” premiered on ABC. The sitcom starred Cindy Williams in addition to Penny Marshall, who later turned one in all the first ladies to attain industrial success as a film director. The present was a spin-off of “Happy Days.”
IRAN’S DEADLY CRACKDOWN
The true dying toll from Iran’s violent crackdown on protesters could also be far increased than beforehand reported.
It is feasible that greater than 10,000 people have been killed — a determine that might exceed the dying toll of China’s Tiananmen Square bloodbath — in response to The Wall Street Journal, citing human rights teams.
Witnesses say hundreds of thousands of Iranians poured into the streets earlier this month after authorities shut down the web. If that truth is confirmed, it might mark the deadliest episode of political repression in Iran since no less than the Nineteen Eighties.
By comparability, roughly 550 people have been killed throughout nationwide protests in 2022, and dozens have been murdered throughout the 2009 Green Movement.
A CONVERSATION WITH BILL BRATTON
Deadly ICE operations in Minneapolis have unfold concern and confusion — and raised pressing questions on federal immigration enforcement. Bill Bratton — former police commissioner of New York City and Boston and former police chief of Los Angeles — spoke to us about the risks of ICE techniques, what DHS should do to start regaining public belief, and the way the roots of this disaster are greater than a decade previous.
WG: Commissioner, if this have been the NYPD or the LAPD, what sort of investigation would start instantly?
BB: The investigation could be terribly thorough — to the biggest diploma doable. We would make each effort to maintain the public knowledgeable of every stage. That’s what’s so troubling right here: the lack of transparency, the absence of knowledge.
It’s eroding public belief in establishments that after commanded great confidence — the FBI and different federal companies sometimes entrusted with these inquiries. The resolution to not examine, to easily declare all the pieces acceptable, has solely deepened considerations about accountability.
This second, I imagine, is a watershed. The federal authorities is starting to acknowledge that its method should change dramatically. What we’re seeing now contradicts all the pieces we’ve labored to attain in American policing over the final 40 years — in professionalism, in oversight, in group belief.
JS: Talk about how poor the policing has been — not simply on this case, however in different incidents we’ve seen from Minneapolis, St. Paul, and throughout the nation.
BB: Joe, you’re completely proper to deal with that. The high quality of enforcement we’ve noticed from ICE and associated companies on immigration operations is appallingly poor — a failure of supervision, management, coordination, and coaching.
American policing has advanced for a long time towards de-escalation, stricter management over the use of pressure, stronger supervision, and deeper group engagement. What we’re seeing now runs fully counter to that progress. It’s deeply disturbing — not solely to me as a former commissioner, however to colleagues throughout regulation enforcement who see a long time of progress being undone.
JS: And the scale of what we’re seeing?
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BB: Minneapolis is about 58 sq. miles, related in dimension and inhabitants to Staten Island. To flood it with 3,000 federal brokers is absurd. The techniques are heavy-handed and undisciplined.
MB: What steps ought to be taken — past changing Bovino — to revive public belief? Is that even doable now?
BB: Right now, there are too many cooks in the kitchen. We’ve had a parade of officers on tv studying from the identical speaking factors, none of them instantly concerned or absolutely knowledgeable.
The administration wants a single authoritative voice — somebody like Mr. [Tom] Homan — to speak clearly and credibly with the public.
JL: Commissioner, there’s speak of doable ICE deployments in New York City. What would occur if those self same techniques have been used right here?
BB: It could be a nightmare — for the metropolis, for regulation enforcement, and for the nation’s picture. New York has world-class capabilities; it doesn’t want 3,000 federal brokers descending on it.
The lesson we’ve discovered over the final 30 years is the worth of precision policing — focused, intelligence-driven operations, not dragnets.
JS: If people right here illegally are incarcerated for crimes, ought to they be turned over to DHS for deportation?
BB: That’s a part of the pressure we’re seeing. When I used to be commissioner in New York in 2014, the metropolis — like many others — designated itself a “sanctuary city,” inserting restrictions on turning over people to federal immigration authorities. Those limits — on paperwork, course of, and eligibility — created friction between native and federal companies.
There’s room for reform, for discovering steadiness. The authentic purpose was to focus deportation efforts on the worst offenders, to not sweep up total communities.
JS: What considerations you about what we’re seeing on the floor now?
BB: The present dragnet method has unfold concern, particularly in working-class Latino neighborhoods.
I see it firsthand on Long Island — males standing on avenue corners ready for work, afraid to be seen. It’s heartbreaking. We can’t implement the regulation by destroying belief in the communities we’re supposed to guard.
This dialog has been condensed and edited for brevity and readability.
EXTRA HOT TEA
Illustration: Natalie Sanders / MS NOW, photograph: HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP through Getty Images
In a press release on Monday, Ye — the Grammy-winning rapper and vogue mogul previously referred to as Kanye West — apologized for a historical past of “impulsive” conduct, together with utilizing antisemitic imagery and publicly describing himself as a Nazi. Ye took out a full-page commercial in The Wall Street Journal titled “To Those I’ve Hurt,” attributing his conduct, partly, to his bipolar dysfunction prognosis and an undiagnosed mind harm.
On Antisemitism:
I remorse and am deeply mortified by my actions in that state, and am dedicated to accountability, remedy, and significant change. It doesn’t excuse what I did although. I’m not a Nazi or an antisemite. I really like Jewish people.
On Swastikas:
I gravitated towards the most harmful image I may discover, the swastika, and even offered T-shirts bearing it. One of the tough features of getting bipolar type-1 are the disconnected moments — a lot of which I nonetheless can’t recall — that led to poor judgment and reckless conduct that oftentimes looks like an out-of-body-experience.
On the Black Community:
To the black group — which held me down by all of the highs and lows and the darkest of occasions. The black group is, unquestionably, the basis of who I’m. I’m so sorry to have allow you to down. I really like us.
ONE MORE SHOT
Lori Van Buren/Albany Times Union through Getty Images Albany Times Union through Getty Ima
People dig out yesterday in Albany, N.Y., after a winter storm slammed the Northeast this weekend.
SPILL IT!
This week, musician Amy Grant will be part of us to debate her new single “The 6th Of January (Yasgur’s Farm).”
Have a query? Ask right here, and we might characteristic your query on the present.
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Joe Scarborough
Former Rep. Joe Scarborough, R-Fla., is co-host of MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” alongside Mika Brzezinski — a present that Time journal calls “revolutionary.” In addition to his profession in tv, Joe is a two-time New York Times best-selling creator. His most up-to-date ebook is “The Right Path: From Ike to Reagan, How Republicans Once Mastered Politics — and Can Again.”
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