安格斯·金参议员接受《面对国家》采访实录（2026年1月25日）

Transcript: Sen. Angus King on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Jan. 25, 2026

2026-01-25T12:08:56-0500 / CBS News

January 25, 2026 / 12:08 PM EST / CBS News

The following is the transcript of the interview with Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent, that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Jan. 25, 2026.

*

MARGARET BRENNAN: We go to Independent Senator Angus King, who joins us from Maine. Good morning to you, Senator.

SEN. ANGUS KING: Good morning, Margaret. Good to be with you.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Good to have you here. And I understand that in your state, ICE just launched this operation “Catch of the Day,” which an official told CBS would target Somali immigrants, among others, targeting 1400 criminal aliens who have quote, unquote, terrorized communities in Maine. What’s been the impact? Do you know how many arrests there have been?

SEN. KING: There have been something like 100 that DHS has told us- and by the way, to follow up on Leader Scalise’s previous comment, that worst of the worst website that DHS has established. They list 13 people in Maine. They concede that- or they state that they’ve arrested 100. I want to know who the other 83 are- I’m sorry, 87. My math is off. But the point is this worst of the worst thing is a pretext. What they’re really doing is going after people who are here. They’re asylum seekers. They’re in the process. They have green cards. We’ve had numerous cases in Maine of people being stopped and detained with zero criminal record, including a recruit for the sheriff’s office to be a guard at the at the- at the county jail. So this idea that it’s the worst of the worst is just nonsense.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, yesterday, your governor released a statement saying she’s requested a meeting with President Trump to withdraw agents from Maine. Powers of the state government seem extremely limited here when you look at Minnesota. Does Maine have any ability to stop this?

SEN. KING: Well, I think we can be talking with DHS and talking with the President. I’m trying to interact with DHS just to get some questions answered. They tell me, I have to submit my questions in writing, and then they’ll get back to me in writing maybe in a week or two. I mean, you know, I represent the people of my state. They shouldn’t be- I shouldn’t have to go through a lot of bureaucratic red tape to get some answers. But this- here’s the real problem, Margaret, the people that are being terrorized in Maine are being terrorized by ICE. They’re not being terrorized by criminals. And ICE says we’re taking we’re- we’re not going to be terrorizing people with criminals on our streets. Here’s what’s happening in Portland. People are afraid to send their kids to school. People are afraid to go to work. Businesses are suffering because their workers can’t come in. Families are sending food to their- to their friends who are afraid to come out. That’s the real impact of this, and it far outweighs any benefit that’s being accrued by these- by these heavy handed tactics.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, in terms of getting to a place where, you know, this can be settled peacefully, one of the things the administration argues again and again is, oh, we were forced to do all this because the last administration, you know, didn’t do adequate jobs when it- job at the border. But they also point to Sanctuary laws. Maine is about to have a law in place by this summer that will prohibit local law enforcement from working with federal authorities on immigration enforcement. Is there a way forward here between states like Maine and the federal government when it comes to peacefully extracting, peacefully, you know, carrying out interior enforcement?

SEN. KING: Well, you put your finger on it. Margaret in the last interview, the question is not, should we enforce the law? Should we be trying to expel dangerous criminals? The question is, how is it done? I did a little research this morning. Obama during his administration, there were something like 2.7 million removals, but you didn’t have people roaming the streets with masks on. By the way, I’ve never seen law enforcement with masks on in my life. Where I come from, the people wearing masks are the bad guys. But you didn’t have this heavy handed, heavily armed, you know, bulletproof vest kind of thing. And there were no incidents that I could find of the kind that we’ve seen just in the last few weeks in Minnesota during that 2.7 million removals during Obama’s administration. We’ve got about 600,000 and and we’re having these incidents all over the country, so it’s not necessary- you can enforce the laws against illegal immigration and- and people that are criminals without ransacking our cities and terrorizing our residents.

MARGARET BRENNAN: This is having reverberations in Washington, as you well know. Leader Schumer said Democrats will not vote for the appropriations bill if DHS funding is included. That means we could see a partial shutdown here. Do you know how you’re going to vote?

SEN. KING: Margaret, I hate shutdowns. I’m one of the people that helped negotiate the solution to the last- the end of the last shutdown, but I can’t vote for a bill that includes ace funding under the circumstances. What they’re doing in my state, what we saw yesterday in Minneapolis. There’s an easy way out, by the way, Leader Thune could separate, which is what they did in the house, separate the five other appropriation bills, put them on the floor. They would pass, I think, overwhelmingly. Then let’s take up DHS. And by the way, if those bills pass, 96% of the federal government is funded. Take up DHS by itself. Let’s have an honest negotiation. Put some guardrails on what’s going on, some accountability, and that would solve this problem. We don’t have to have a shutdown.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So that’s your path to avoid a shutdown. But quickly, I want to ask you about rhetoric in Arizona, the state AG said ICE is not real law enforcement. Minnesota’s governor also said, quit referring to these people as law enforcement, they’re not law enforcement. Do you consider ICE law enforcement?

SEN. KING: I guess I technically would, but I don’t- again- well, let me, let me put it in the words of the sheriff in- in Cumberland County, Maine when they took one of his recruits, he called it ‘bush league policing.’ And I think that sort of summarizes it and- and there’s no need for this overwhelming show of force. I believe what we’re seeing is an attempt to intimidate the American people. Again, armed people with masks and- and telling people they can’t photograph what they’re doing, and intimidating protesters. That’s- that’s not America. And then you mentioned in your previous interview about the going into houses without any warrant. That’s a blatant violation of the Fourth Amendment. These people are acting outside the Constitution. They’re ignoring our laws, and we just can’t keep- keep supporting that.

MARGARET BRENNAN: All right. Senator King, thank you for joining us today. We’ll be right back.