A freshly relaunched CBS Evening News has joined Kristi Noem on an ICE raid weeks after its sister show got censored for a segment on deportations.
Just one day after Tony Dokoupil made his error-riddled debut as the new face of the long-running newscast, CBS Evening News joined the Homeland Security secretary and federal agents in carrying out a massive raid in Minneapolis on Tuesday.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the operation was aimed at arresting Tomas Espin Tapia, an Ecuadorian man wanted for alleged murder and sexual assault.
Noem, 54, personally confronted Tapia while decked out in her immigration agent cosplay, consisting of a black long-sleeved top, black beanie, and blue jeans, topped off with an ICE vest. She paired the outfit with her signature blowout and a full face of makeup.
“Do you know why we’re here today?” Noem asked Tapia. “You will be held accountable for your crimes. We’ll take you in for processing.”
CBS News producer Elizabeth Campbell wrote in an X post that their team “embedded with federal agents on this ICE operation.” The show blurred the face of an ICE agent without explaining why to viewers. Noem has long defended the covering of ICE agents’ faces, claiming it is to protect their identity and safety.
Noem later sat down for an exclusive interview with Nicole Sganga, CBS’s homeland security and justice correspondent, who said one American-born youth counselor was interrogated by immigration agents.
“What’s your message to him?” Sganga asked.
“That every individual that we have focused on the last year, as far as the Department of Homeland Security, has been someone who has broken our laws,” Noem responded.
“So he should not be worried?” the reporter replied.
“Absolutely not,” Noem said. The aired segment did not include pushback to this assertion.
CBS News did not immediately return a request for comment about the interview with Noem and the blurring of an agent’s face.
The primetime feature for Noem comes as CBS News reels from the controversy sparked by editor-in-chief Bari Weiss’ decision to abruptly shelve a damning 60 Minutes episode about the Trump administration’s hardline immigration blitz.
Mere hours before 60 Minutes went live on Dec. 22, the show announced that a segment about the notorious El Salvadoran megaprison known as CECOT would not air as scheduled.
Reporting by multiple outlets later revealed that Weiss wanted an on-camera response from Trump officials, even though the 60 Minutes team had already made several requests for comment.
Sharyn Alfonsi, who reported the segment, said it was “spiked.”
“Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” she wrote in an email to colleagues. “It is factually correct.”
Weiss, 41, rose to the helm of CBS News from her media start-up, The Free Press, thanks to David Ellison, the Trump-allied CEO of the network’s parent company, Paramount.
Days before the revamped CBS Evening News hit the airwaves, the show made a five-point promise to viewers, which bizarrely included a commitment to loving America.
“We love America and we make no apologies for saying so,” it said. “One way to think about our show is as a daily conversation about exactly where we are as a country and where we are going.”
Dokoupil, 45, was tapped by Weiss to lead the retooled CBS Evening News. He joined the network in 2016 after stints at Newsweek, the Daily Beast, and NBC News.
Connecticut-born Dokoupil was educated at the now $53,000-a-year Gulliver Preparatory School in South Florida before studying business at George Washington University. He then attended graduate school at Columbia University.
The MAGA-coded anchor, who is married to MS NOW’s Katy Tur and lives with her in one of Brooklyn’s most expensive enclaves, had a rough first day on the job and was swiftly mocked on social media, including by MAGA personalities who weren’t buying his media outsider schtick.
