Jan. 9, 2026

Morning Run: Portland DHS Shooting, Astronaut Medical Situation, Limiting Trump’s War Power, Trump Nobel Peace Prize?, Grave Robber Charged and Miami Beats Ole Miss

Morning Run: Portland DHS Shooting, Astronaut Medical Situation, Limiting Trump’s War Power, Trump Nobel Peace Prize?, Grave Robber Charged and Miami Beats Ole Miss

Robach and Holmes cover the latest news headlines and entertainment updates and give perspective on current events in their daily “Morning Run.”

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

00:00:01
Speaker 1: Morning Run with Amy and TJ and iHeartRadio Podcast. Good morning everyone, and welcome to Morning Run. It is Friday, January ninth. I made Robock laughing at my partner TJ. Holmes, who says he is not going to sneeze again, and yet I see you struggling.

00:00:18
Speaker 2: Is this a thing? Do people know this?

00:00:20
Speaker 3: That every sneeze is followed by a second sneeze. You can't just do one.

00:00:24
Speaker 1: I was waiting for the second sneeze and you said there will not be one, although your eyes are watering and you look miserable.

00:00:31
Speaker 3: No, that's just because it's morning.

00:00:34
Speaker 1: No, you need to sneeze again, and you're trying to prove a well.

00:00:37
Speaker 3: It's fine, no point to prove. Good morning to you all. I am TJ.

00:00:41
Speaker 2: Holmes.

00:00:42
Speaker 3: Always good to have you with us. It is Friday and our run today. We are going to make a stop in Glendale, Arizona. I'm going to make a stop at a federal courtroom in Manhattan. Another leg will take us to the International Space Station, also to Minneapolis, and a cemetery in Pennsylvania is on our run today as well for a story that the officials there are calling something right out of a horror movie.

00:01:08
Speaker 2: And we've seen a lot of horror movies.

00:01:09
Speaker 1: Yes, and I would agree when you start to read the details, macabre comes to mind, among many other very descriptive adjectives that are available. We can get into that in a bit.

00:01:21
Speaker 3: We will, But the first leg of our run we have to begin in the Pacific northwest Robe. So much attention was on Minneapolis, and I can't believe that we're actually talking about the very next day, right.

00:01:32
Speaker 1: Yes, and this one is a bizarre one. It's very confusing. All eyes obviously have been on Minneapolis. But yes, there was another agent involved shooting yesterday in Portland, Oregon. Two people were shot during a traffic stop. The Department of Homeland Security says this is another case of someone trying to run over an immigration agent with a vehicle.

00:01:55
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:01:55
Speaker 3: So in this case, a man and a woman were shot. Now their condition as of this recording, we do not know. But DHS put out a statement on AX yesterday fairly quickly explained that this was happening at two nineteen Pacific time, that a Border Patrol agent several agents were conducting a targeted vehicle stop in Portland, Oregon. So that suggests they weren't just doing this randomly. This was something when somebody they were after. Now they go on to say that the passenger of that vehicle is a target of this investigation having to do with an international prostitution ring, a gang that was involved in a recent shootings. So what they're saying this was possibly a bad person in this car that they were after. And they go on to say this when agents identified themselves to the vehicle occupants, the driver weaponized his vehicle and attempted to run over the law enforcement agents. Fearing for his life and safety, an agent fired a defensive shot. The driver drove off, with the passenger fleeing the scene. Now Portland is asking for a suspension of the federal immigration operations until an investigation into this is done. Likely not going to happen, but it's right now. I know it's still early, but it just doesn't make sense what two sides are saying, and how we went down, and who was targeted and why and who was shot. So a lot more we need there.

00:03:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's very confusing. We don't have the names of the driver or the passenger, both of the victims of the shooting, but they're claiming at least DHS is claiming at least one of them is a member of a Venezuelan gang, So Venezuela back in the fold in this narrative, or at least what DHS says is happening. But yeah, there are a lot of questions and not a lot of answers about what exactly happened and why it happened in Portland. But next up on the run, we will head back to Minnesota, where the governor there, Tim Waltz, has declared today a day of unity. There will be a moment of silence at ten am to honor thirty seven year old Renee Wood, who was shot and killed by that ice agent. Demonstrations continued last night in Minneapolis, as you might imagine, as they still have been continuing throughout the country.

00:04:03
Speaker 3: But in Minneapolis we were talking about the weather. It was freezing rain, they said yesterday, and folks were out there in the streets. Meanwhile, Minnesota officials are complaining now that they've been shut out of the investigation into the shooting by federal authorities. The FBI has now fully taken over the investigation. There was a joint investigation of partnership, but now they say robes that FBI is taking it over. Local officials now don't have access to evidence. So the question there is there anyone really going to be I don't know another set of eyes besides the federal government's eyes on the investigation.

00:04:36
Speaker 1: Yes, that whole important thing called transparency might be at issue and certainly going to cause or at least fuel more debate between both sides who claim they saw something very different than the other. All right, next up on the run. They're not calling it a medical emergency, but something serious enough is going on up in the International Space Station that NASA has made made a bold decision to bring the entire crew home early. This is a first. We have never seen this before. This is a crew of four, they've been there since August, and what they had another month left on their mission, the.

00:05:15
Speaker 3: Trip getting cut short. You were making this point, I didn't really think about that, not that they would be mad at this other crew member, but you don't really get a lot of shots going to space disappointed.

00:05:24
Speaker 1: Like I was just saying, can you imagine you work your whole life as an astronaut to get up there to do this spacewalk, to complete a mission and helping the International Space Station. And look, one of your colleagues gets really, really really sick and you have to leave early.

00:05:38
Speaker 3: And we don't exactly know what it was, but there was a spacewalk that was planned for yesterday that NASA called off citing a medical issue affecting one crew member. And then they followed up yesterday saying a single crew member on board the station experienced a medical situation and is now stable. They wanted to make sure robes that they make clear that this was not because of an accident of some kind in space. This had nothing to do with another crew member. So don't know what happened here, but they're coming home.

00:06:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, they made a point to say it wasn't an emergency, but it was a serious medical issue. So hopefully we'll get some more information, and certainly we hope that that astronaut is okay and they all return to Earth safely. All right. Next up on the run, the US, Greenland, and Denmark are officially talking. Hmmm, I wonder what could be on their agenda. Yeah, the White House confirming that a meeting has taken place between US officials and the top envoys from Denmark and Greenland.

00:06:38
Speaker 3: That's all they gave us. Didn't give us a read out of the meeting. They didn't even confirm which US official was part of that meeting. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is also scheduled to meet with Denmark and Greenland's foreign ministers next week. Of course, we know what's on the table, but don't know if they're just trying to calm things down or we're negotiating a purchase, yes, of some kind.

00:06:57
Speaker 1: We have made it very clear we would like to buy Greenland, and Denmark has made it very clear that Greenland is not for sale. So we shall see how they decide to handle that impasse. That seems to at least be in place, all right. Next up on the run, five Republican senators went against President Trump yesterday. They voted with Democrats on a resolution to limit the president's war power. The bill would require here's the caveat, the president to get congressional approval before any further action in Venezuela.

00:07:29
Speaker 3: Some would say that would be a good thing, yes, right, But here's the thing. They just voted to move this bill forward in the Senate. The bill is going to move forward in the Senate. For another vote next week. After that, it would have to go to a vote in the House, good luck, Mike Johnson, and then it would have to go to President Trump to sign it. So this really ain't happening by all reality.

00:07:54
Speaker 1: Isn't that so ironic? The way our system works, if Congress wants to limit presidential powers or executive powers, the person who's in charge of the executive branch would have to sign off on limiting his or her own powers. How would that ever actually take place.

00:08:08
Speaker 3: You have to have a veto proof majority in Congress and that is a big absolutely not going to happen. And there it is. The other thing on the Venezuela situation. President Trump says he's actually going to meet with the Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Prize laureate, Maria Maria Corina Machado. That is going to happen next week at the White House. Okay, fine, but this is now building up robes to possibly be a pretty big moment and spectacle, and that Machado has said she wants to give President Trump her Nobel Peace Prize. He was asked about it, and he actually said that would be a great honor. He didn't shoot it down.

00:08:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, so did she. So I'm reading what she wrote on what she said on Hannity's show. She said that she and the Venezuelan people want to share the prize with Trump after the US military seize Maduro and his wife and brought them to New York to stand trial. So that would be quite a moment. And it does sound like President Trump is very eager to accept that offer.

00:09:14
Speaker 2: You can just see it happening. You can see it.

00:09:17
Speaker 3: He put his name in front of Kennedy's on the Kennedy Center. You don't think he'll take this woman's will?

00:09:22
Speaker 1: Do you think he'll be willing if it is? In fact, the question is is she going to share it with him? Or is she going to give it to him?

00:09:29
Speaker 2: Well, what's the one? How do we talk now? Well, if she knows what's good for well, how we roll now?

00:09:35
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, let's continue.

00:09:37
Speaker 3: On the run here now. Another note out of DC, the House approved a three year extension of those healthcare tax benefits, the Obamacare subsidies is they're also known as These are the very ones that the government was shut down for a recond amount of time at the end of last year over this issue. Well, they have agreed to an extension. Again, this is just in the House, but some Republicans did have to join with Democrats.

00:10:00
Speaker 2: But ropes.

00:10:00
Speaker 3: Now it has to go to the Senate. Nobody thinks it's going to pass with the in the same version at least, But maybe this they can incorporate some of this. It's a possible framework. And look, if this moves the ball forward a little bit, maybe that's.

00:10:12
Speaker 2: A good thing.

00:10:12
Speaker 1: Look, it's funny because I was reading up on this and it was a big deal because, honestly, so the one of the House members said today, let's just celebrate a victory of getting something done. They know that it's not going to pass the Senate, but like, that's where we are. Isn't that sad that they're celebrating that in one moment, in one bill they had some level of compromise, that this is like a glimmer of hope. That's where we are in our and we'll take your proceedings.

00:10:42
Speaker 2: We'll take you, won't we.

00:10:43
Speaker 1: I guess we'll have to take what we can get at this point. All right, Next up on the run, Luigi MANNGIONI will be in a federal courtroom today for another critical hearing. They're calling this a key hearing. He was recently in court. We saw a bunch of that going on and went on quite a while for dealing with charges in this state case. This is the federal case, which is different. His lawyers are fighting once again to get some key evidence thrown out. But also the big thing here, they're trying to get the government to avoid the death penalty. They don't want them to seek the death penalty in this Their big argument is that that purp walk we all saw on television prejudiced any potential jury.

00:11:25
Speaker 3: They compared it to a TV show, No, a Marvel movie or something. Yeah, I think they compared it to But yeah, there's a lot of fighting. I can't keep up with all his court appearances and dates in state and federal.

00:11:36
Speaker 2: Can't keep it.

00:11:36
Speaker 1: He's got good lawyers, man doesn't.

00:11:38
Speaker 3: All right, folks, will stay with us here on this Friday morning ron and when we come back, we're talking about a pardon, a grave robber, and.

00:11:49
Speaker 2: A game.

00:11:49
Speaker 3: I really hope you did not go to sleep on last night. Stay here was that directed at me? We continue on this Friday morning run now with a I just say you're speechless. It's easy to stay say. It reminds you of a horror movie. And we have seen plenty of horror movies that had something like this. I don't know if I've heard of one quite like this in real life. A grave robber folks out of Pennsylvania, an accused grave robber at this point has been arrested and in the home, in the basement of his home, they found one hundred full or partial sets of human remains in a home. Iw you name it skulls and whatnot. But they also made a point of saying that they range from They have skeletons there that are two hundred years old and some that are newborn. Jonathan Gerlock is the name, thirty four year old. He is facing a dozens now of burglary and trespassing charges. And so you wonder robes why he wasn't killing these people he was taking they're bones out of cemeteries, why he was selling them. They think there's some black market, black market thing out there, and they have you can click on human remains for sale and you can do this. They think that's what he was possibly doing.

00:13:20
Speaker 1: That is so disturbing. Holy he just having all of that in your basement. First of all, that is bold and brave. I would never ever like talk about desegrating graves, and just it's so scary.

00:13:33
Speaker 3: Back you talk about having in your house, go backwards for a second, before the first step.

00:13:38
Speaker 2: You have to go dig up yew woof. So yes, that's going on.

00:13:45
Speaker 1: And just the fact that there is obviously he was motivated by money, at least that's what police say, so there was something to be made. There was an incentive, a financial incentive for her to do this. But just the fact that people out there would pay to have a human skull on their bookshelf for whatever. I don't know, but that's just disturbing in and of itself, just to know that there are people like they're out in the world, just maybe they're your neighbors. Who knows what's in their basements? That's where my brain goes there though, I start looking at people like are you like, who does that? And when you look at the people, sometimes they look totally normal, like literally your next door neighbor. All right, I'll get off this anyway. Next up on the Run, we now know that Trump is not considering pardoning Didty and we now know that Ditty wrote him a letter asking him to do so.

00:14:38
Speaker 2: I don't want to read that thing. I really want to read that letter.

00:14:43
Speaker 1: I so does everybody else. And it says the New York Times. Once Trump let them know that he had a letter from Ditty, and then he said, you want to read the letter, And of course the answer is yes. But then we did not get that letter produced. We didn't get the description of what was inside the letter. There wasn't a copy of the letter. But you can be sure that Trump is going to be asked a follow up. This was an interview he did with the New York Times. They asked him about pardoning. Did he And this was the first time we heard him actually make a pretty resolute statement. And I say pretty resolute because you did point out that he didn't absolutely shut the door, but he he closed it with just a little bit of space left.

00:15:23
Speaker 3: Oh yes, but this was considered to be one of only two options. Did he has left? And maybe maybe his best option was getting a pardon. We shall see. But this was the first significant, I guess, confirmation that we got it from Trump finally here on the run. Yeah, this is why you just don't go to sleep. You just you have to stay up and watch these games. Because we had another classic last night, Yes, the college football playoff semi final. Miami beat ole Miss last night, twenty thirty one to twenty seven. If if Ole Miss just had whoever had that ball lass was going to win that game. They had four lead changes in the fourth quarter. This was just a wonderful game. But Carson Beck, the quarterback from Miami transfer from Georgia, actually he actually ran scored a touchdown, his first one since last September or something, a running touchdown with eighteen seconds.

00:16:14
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness.

00:16:15
Speaker 2: It was a wonderful, wonderful game.

00:16:16
Speaker 1: Oh, the irony on so many levels because Ole Miss beat Georgia in the exact same way you had said to me, if it was anybody whoever had the ball last was going to win that's And so Ole Miss won and beat Georgia and in that upset, and so we were actually hoping Georgia fans that we would be playing Miami in this game, and that we would be facing Carson Beck, our old quarterback, and it would have been an incredible matchup. That was something a lot of folks were more excited about, even than the national championship. But Carson Beck stole the show, stole the game, and might.

00:16:50
Speaker 2: End up getting himself a national CHAMPIONSHIA ship.

00:16:53
Speaker 1: That'll just be such a rub to Georgia fans. I gotta say, But hey, you know what, good for.

00:16:57
Speaker 3: Him Indiana Oregon. That game is tonight and Miami will play the winner of that game. One thing to note there was, and you should go check it out, there was a pass interference call that was missed at the end of this game, at the end of the old Miss Miami game. A lot it look it was a hail mary, so sometimes it seems like a jump ball, but there are many arguments being made this was a legit pass interference at the final play of the game, and you will be hearing more and more about it. Also, one of the note Miami was the last team picked for the college football champ and a lot of people upset they even got in. And now look at them.

00:17:32
Speaker 1: You know what, that is a pretty cool story. Everyone loves an underdog proving everybody wrong, and that could very well be the case the championship. January nineteenth. Yeah, I know, and you know what, good for them? Obviously I had I had already looked at plane tickets. I had already looked at Yeah.

00:17:50
Speaker 2: Let that be a lesson, do you I know?

00:17:52
Speaker 1: I was just I know, I was just gidding. I was hopeful, but you know, there's always next year. But no, we'll be watching and we'll be excited to watch the game come January nineteen.

00:18:00
Speaker 3: All Right, folks, before we let you go, something we like for you to consider it is our quote of the day going into Friday. I wanted to keep it up beat robes because I had a lot of kind of pointed ones, but I decided to keep it up beat on Friday. Okay, I like that, all right quote. If you don't have any doubts and don't feel like it's a risk, your goal is probably too small.

00:18:23
Speaker 2: Let do you think about that? I like that.

00:18:25
Speaker 1: I think that it's a good way to look at fear. So people sometimes let that kind of thing stop them from pursuing either a goal, a relationship, an idea. But if you consider it through that lens, it actually makes it worth fighting for.

00:18:41
Speaker 2: There is take that with you this weekend, folks.

00:18:43
Speaker 3: If you don't have any doubts and don't feel like it's a risk, your goal is probably too small. And with that, folks, we always appreciate you running with us. Certainly have yourself a good Friday, a good weekend. You can expect a couple more updates from us on the fee today. So it was always top right corner of that Apple podcast app you see our show page a little button that says follow click that you could be sure to get all our updates. But we always appreciate you running with us. I'm TJ.

00:19:08
Speaker 1: Holmes and I'm Amy Roboch. We will run with you soon