CNN’s Inside Politics host Dana Bash had no evidence on Thursday that the Department of Homeland Security was being untruthful when it said that an ICE agent shot a man in the leg in self-defense during an arrest operation after he joined in with other two other would-be assailants, one of whom was wielding a snow shovel. Nevertheless, Bash tried to cast doubt on the situation, claiming DHS is untrustworthy given the video of the shooting of Renee Good.
Addressing correspondent Priscilla Alvarez, Bash declared that, “I just want to talk about the reality that we face right now after what happened last week with Renee Good’s killing. And that is this time we don't, as far as we know, have video of what happened with this man being shot in the leg. We do have DHS saying exactly what they said was happened, which is that he was defending himself and it was a bad situation for him. You can fill in those blanks, but because we saw what we saw with our own eyes and because the explanation was so different from DHS last week, it puts the whole question of trust in a very big question mark box.”
DHS also said the officer and the man shot in the leg were hospitalized, so maybe one of CNN’s reporters can do some reporting and confirm DHS’s account.
However, Alvarez agreed, “Right. What you're getting at is that the Department of Homeland Security has a credibility issue, one that came up last week when there was the ICE involved shooting of the woman, Renee Good, but also before that, for example, in Chicago, when a federal judge had found that they were not forthcoming with the details of incidents, particularly as it—was involved, protesters and federal agents. The department in this case says that the officer was assaulted, and you could see the chaotic scenes that unfolded there that Whitney was describing.”
It doesn’t matter if CNN approves of certain officials labeling Good as a terrorist or any other negative descriptor. The only thing that matters is if the agent, in the heat of the moment, credibly feared for his life and given Good ignored orders to get out of the car, her wife implored her to “drive, baby, drive,” and his subsequent injuries, that appears to be the case.
Here is a transcript for the January 15 show:
CNN Inside Politics with Dana Bash
1/15/2026
12:04 PM ET
DANA BASH: Priscilla Alvarez, I'm going to start with you. I just want to— I'm going to talk to David about the Insurrection Act threat in a second, but I just want to talk about the reality that we face right now after what happened last week with Renee Good’s killing.
And that is this time we don't, as far as we know, have video of what happened with this man being shot in the leg. We do have DHS saying exactly what they said was happened, which is that he was defending himself and it was a bad situation for him. You can fill in those blanks, but because we saw what we saw with our own eyes and because the explanation was so different from DHS last week, it puts the whole question of trust in a very big question mark box.
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ: Right. What you're getting at is that the Department of Homeland Security has a credibility issue, one that came up last week when there was the ICE involved shooting of the woman, Renee Good, but also before that, for example, in Chicago, when a federal judge had found that they were not forthcoming with the details of incidents, particularly as it—was involved, protesters and federal agents. The department in this case says that the officer was assaulted, and you could see the chaotic scenes that unfolded there that Whitney was describing.
