Trump press secretary launches tirade against reporter who asked about ICE | Trump administration

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused a reporter of being a “left-wing activist” during a heated confrontation Thursday over the killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent last week.

Beginning his question at the White House press briefing, Hill’s White House columnist Niall Stanage referenced the Trump administration’s staunch defense of ICE agents and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s assertion that ICE is “doing everything right.” He pointed to statistics showing that last year, 32 people died while in ICE custody and that 170 U.S. citizens were detained by ICE, before pointing out that Good was “shot in the head and killed by an ICE agent.”

“How does that mean they’re doing everything right?” he asked Leavitt.

“Why was Renee Good sadly and tragically killed? » asked Leavitt. Stanage asked if Leavitt asked her opinion, to which she replied: “Yeah. »

“Because an ICE agent acted recklessly and unjustifiably killed her,” Stanage responded.

Leavitt then replied: “OK, so you are a biased journalist with a left-wing view… Because you are a left-wing hacker. You are not a journalist who presents himself in this room as a journalist. And the premise of your question makes that clear. And you and the people in the media who have such biases but pretend to be a journalist, you shouldn’t even be sitting in this seat.”

She continued: “But you’re pretending to be a journalist, but you’re a left-wing activist. And the question you just asked and your answer proves that you’re biased. You should report on the facts. You should report on the cases.”

Leavitt told him he should focus more on the number of American citizens killed by “illegal” immigrants.

“I bet you haven’t even read those stories,” she said. “I bet you’ve never heard of Laken Riley or Jocelyn Nungaray or all the innocent Americans who have been killed by illegal aliens in this country and the brave men and women of ICE are doing everything in their power to deport these heinous individuals and make our communities safer. And shame on people like you in the media who have a twisted and biased view and pretend to be a real, honest journalist.”

Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis during a raid by federal immigration enforcement on Jan. 7. His killing sparked passionate protests and condemnation across the country, as well as an ongoing political debate over the basic facts of the incident, which was caught on video.

The Trump administration strongly defended the officer, who was identified as Jonathan Ross, saying he fired several shots at Good in self-defense as she tried to ram him and other officers with her car. The FBI has only just begun investigating the incident.

Trump falsely said in a New York Times interview that Good “took him down,” while Noem accused Good of “domestic terrorism.” JD Vance wrote on X that Ross was “defending his life from a deranged leftist who was trying to crush him.” U.S. authorities also said Ross suffered internal bleeding when he was struck by his vehicle.

However, The New York Times’ video reconstruction of the event appears to indicate that the car did not hit Ross and that Good was attempting to flee the area rather than run over the officers.

With thousands of federal immigration agents still in Minneapolis following Good’s killing, the city again erupted in protests following the shooting of a man in the leg during a crackdown in a northern neighborhood on Wednesday, prompting Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to call on Trump to “lower the temperature.”

In a statement, he called on the president to “end this campaign of retaliation” and urged protesters in Minnesota to “speak out loud and clear, urgently, but also peacefully.”