WASHINGTON — Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem got into a fiery clash with CNN anchor Jake Tapper on Sunday while defending Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) fatal shooting of Renee Good — telling the lefty host that he can’t “change the facts” just because he doesn’t “like them.”
Tapper grilled Noem about how she could make swift conclusions, such as calling Good a “domestic terrorist,” and defending ICE officer Jonathan Ross just hours after the shooting.
“Everything that I’ve said has been proven to be factual,” Noem shot back during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday.
“[I] decided that the department and the people of this country deserve to know the truth of the situation of what has unfolded in Minneapolis.”
The CNN host then harped on Noem’s initial reaction to the tragic shooting that took place last Wednesday, in which she claimed that ICE officers “were attempting to push out their vehicle, and a woman attacked them and those surrounding them and attempted to run them over.”
“That’s not what happened,” Tapper insisted, later implying that his gripe was with the notion that Good attacked the ICE officers.
“It absolutely is what happened,” Noem fired back. “[She] blocked the road for a long time and was yelling at them and impeding a federal law enforcement operation.”
Here’s the sequence behind the dramatic video taken by ICE agent moments before shooting Renee Nicole Good
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Footage from multiple angles showed the tense confrontation between Ross and Good last Wednesday. Good, a mother of three, had stopped her car in the street, blocking the officers from moving forward for more than three minutes.
The officers got out to confront her. Ross had been at the front of the car when, suddenly, Good accelerated.
He bolted out of the way, firing off a shot at her windshield and then appeared to pop two more at the side of her SUV.
Noem claimed Ross later received treatment at a nearby hospital for being “hit by the vehicle” before being released.
Tapper grilled Noem about why she was so certain that Good wasn’t “trying to move her car and flee and get away” and not necessarily ram into Ross.
“The facts of the situation are that the vehicle was weaponized, and it attacked the law enforcement officer,” Noem said. “He defended himself, and he defended those individuals around him.”
“When there is something that is weaponized to use against the public and law enforcement, that is an act of domestic terrorism,” she added. “You don’t get to change the facts just because you don’t like them.”
Top Trump administration officials, particularly Vice President JD Vance, have staunchly defended Ross from the torrent of criticism he’s received.
The FBI said it is investigating the situation.
“You see how quickly the situation unfolded, how the officer was in front of the vehicle when she sped off,” Noem stressed to Tapper. “How she ran into him. And how he had to take quick action based on his training to defend himself and his colleagues.
Here’s the latest on the Minneapolis ICE agent shooting:
“That’s very clear and factual from the videos that you can see, it’s nobody’s interpretation.”
Tapper later tried to put Noem on the spot by playing footage of Capitol Police officers being bludgeoned by Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol rioters, whom he noted were pardoned by President Trump.
Noem brushed that aside, contending that “every single one of these investigations comes in the full context of the situation on the ground.”
The DHS honcho also took aim at the incendiary rhetoric coming from officials in Minnesota, particularly Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, calling on ICE to “get the f—k out of” his city.”
“They’ve extremely politicized and inappropriately talked about the situation on the ground in their city. They’ve inflamed the public, they’ve encouraged the kind of destruction and violence that we’ve seen in Minneapolis in the last several days,” Noem said of local officials in Minneapolis.
“I would encourage them to grow up.”
