MS NOW host Jonathan Capehart and former New York Times columnist-turned-podcaster and staff writer for The Atlantic David Brooks returned to PBS News Hour on Friday to declare victory for the anti-ICE crowds in Minnesota by comparing them to the Civil Rights Movement and the Underground Railroad.
Host William Brangham started with Brooks, “President Trump put—I'm talking about Minnesota—put his border czar in charge of what was going on there. And Tom Homan said, 'Okay, we're going to now start to pull this back.' David, what do you make of this development?”
Brooks’s return meant anything resembling a conservative perspective was now gone, “Well, when Tom Homan is the reasonable and cuddly one, then you know we have come a long way. And, you know, I think it's partly because of the awfulness of those videos and the killings. But it's partly because of citizen power.”
On PBS, David Brooks compares the Minnesota demonstrators to the Civil Rights Movement, "I was with a historian yesterday. And she said, learn from the Civil Rights Movement. Everybody should be studying the civil rights movement. That's what they did," while Jonathan Capehart… pic.twitter.com/bxzFqxaY4o
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) February 14, 2026
He added:
You know, we have been talking a lot over the months about a civic movement. And the people of Minneapolis in bitter cold weather behaved in a self-disciplined, humane way that appealed to people across the political spectrum and in a disciplined way. And they turned up the heat and they put the regime in an impossible situation. Either behave brutally and generate more hostility or lose control of the streets. And that's what a civic movement needs to do, put the pressure on the government and expose the moral distance between one side and the other.”
Continuing his ode to the demonstrators, Brooks recalled, “I was with a historian yesterday. And she said, 'Learn from the Civil Rights Movement.' Everybody should be studying the civil rights movement. That's what they did. And it worked in this case in Minneapolis, and even the Trump administration had to back down.”
Brangham then turned to Capehart, “Do you see it that way too, that this is power of the people?”
Naturally, Capehart agreed, “Absolutely. And I saw it from the beginning. Remember, I went to college in Minnesota. And so Minnesota holds a special place in my heart. And I was just there. I wasn't on the show last weekend because I was at Carleton Board of Trustees meeting.”
Capehart then recalled his own personal anecdote:
What you were talking about in Minneapolis wasn't just in Minneapolis. It was throughout. In Northfield, Minnesota, they were dealing with ICE. And they were dealing with ICE in a very quiet way, not the whistles and the horns, but text chains, people who were observing, taking license plates, letting people know. I went to do something on Friday and the person who picked me up said—apologized for the vehicle and then said to me, I was—quote—‘underground railroading food all night.’
Brangham then interrupted to voice his amazement, “Wow. These are for people who feel that they can't go to the grocery store because they're scared of what—“
Capehart then kept rolling, “Could not—they had not left home. We're talking about people who had not left home in more than a month. And so what you had in Minneapolis, what you had in Northfield, Minnesota, what you have throughout Minnesota are people coming to the aid of their neighbors and their loved ones, standing up for their communities in the face of incredible, I don't know any other word to use, but oppression from the federal government, targeting, targeting their communities.”
Enforcing immigration law is not the same thing as enforcing slavery or segregation, and just because Brooks and Capehart would prefer to avoid talking about the full context of the Renee Good and Alex Pretti shootings does not mean that context is unimportant.
Here is a transcript for the February 13 show:
PBS News Hour
2/13/2026
7:35 PM ET
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: President Trump put—I'm talking about Minnesota—put his border czar in charge of what was going on there. And Tom Homan said, “Okay, we're going to now start to pull this back.” David, what do you make of this development?
DAVID BROOKS: Well, when Tom Homan is the reasonable and cuddly one, then you know we have come a long way. And, you know, I think it's partly because of the awfulness of those videos and the killings. But it's partly because of citizen power.
You know, we have been talking a lot over the months about a civic movement. And the people of Minneapolis in bitter cold weather behaved in a self-disciplined, humane way that appealed to people across the political spectrum and in a disciplined way. And they turned up the heat and they put the regime in an impossible situation.
Either behave brutally and generate more hostility or lose control of the streets. And that's what a civic movement needs to do, put the pressure on the government and expose the moral distance between one side and the other.
And I was with a historian yesterday. And she said, “Learn from the Civil Rights Movement.” Everybody should be studying the civil rights movement. That's what they did. And it worked in this case in Minneapolis, and even the Trump administration had to back down.
BRANGHAM: Do you see it that way too, that this is power of the people?
JONATHAN CAPEHART: Absolutely. And I saw it from the beginning. Remember, I went to college in Minnesota. And so Minnesota holds a special place in my heart. And I was just there. I wasn't on the show last weekend because I was at Carleton Board of Trustees meeting.
And what you were talking about in Minneapolis wasn't just in Minneapolis. It was throughout. In Northfield, Minnesota, they were dealing with ICE. And they were dealing with ICE in a very quiet way, not the whistles and the horns, but text chains, people who were observing, taking license plates, letting people know.
I went to do something on Friday and the person who picked me up said -- apologized for the vehicle and then said to me, I was—quote—"underground railroading food all night."
BRANGHAM: Wow.
CAPEHART: And so to David's point—
BRANGHAM: These are for people who feel that they can't go to the grocery store because they're scared of what—
CAPEHART: Could not—they had not left home. We're talking about people who had not left home in more than a month.
And so what you had in Minneapolis, what you had in Northfield, Minnesota, what you have throughout Minnesota are people coming to the aid of their neighbors and their loved ones, standing up for their communities in the face of incredible, I don't know any other word to use, but oppression from the federal government, targeting, targeting their communities.
