Speaking during a Sunday, January 11, appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” program with host Jake Tapper, the same show in which DHS Secretary Kristi Noem went scorched earth on him and Governor Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) went on the attack against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over the shooting of Renee Good.
As background, Good was shot when she allegedly attempted to run over an ICE officer in Minneapolis during a protest against ICE over its attempts to tackle the fraud problem involving mainly Somali migrants in the state and city. The Trump Administration claimed, in the wake of the shooting, that Good was a “domestic terrorist” and clearly at fault, a statement that Mayor Frey reacted furiously against.
Such came when the show’s host, Jake Tapper, asked what Mayor Frey thought of Kristi Noem going totally scorched earth on him, accusing him and Gov. Walz of stirring up the public against ICE in a very dangerous way. Tapper asked, “Mayor Frey, your response to what you just heard from Secretary Noem? She invoked you by name.”
Firing back, Frey began by insisting that Noem was just a mouthpiece for President Trump, as if it is a bad thing for Cabinet Secretaries and the president to be aligned. He said, “That was some wild and crazy stuff. You know, it sounds like she doesn’t believe a single word that she is saying right now. And, I don’t know if Donald Trump was drinking a glass of water, if she’d actually be able to speak.”
Continuing, he ridiculously insisted that really Minneapolis is a wonderfully safe city and that ICE is what ails the city and is making it dangerous, saying, “Because here’s the thing. She’s calling Minneapolis, like this dystopian hellhole. You know how many shootings we’ve had so far this year? Two. And one of them was ICE—two shootings in a large city so far this entire year. And one of them is ICE. This is a safe city. ICE. And Kristi Noem and everything they’re doing is making it far less safe.”
Pressing him, Tapper noted that the mayor had been involved in pushing a message quite hostile to ICE, saying, “I want you to respond to what she said about you telling ICE to get the F out. She says you and the leaders in Minneapolis have been demonizing ICE officers.”
Continuing, Tapper questioned whether the mayor ought change his rhetoric, saying, “And it is true that you’ve been critical of the Secretary, known for her quick characterization of the incident. But but you also, said on Wednesday, quote, this was a federal agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying. Does your rhetoric need to change?”
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Frey refused to recant, and instead defended the woman who allegedly attacked the ICE agent. He snapped, “Yeah, yeah. I said this was a federal agent recklessly using power that ended up in somebody dying, because that was a federal agent recklessly using power that ended up in somebody dying, which is exactly what happened. I mean, am I biased in this? Of course. And I’m biased because I got two eyes. Anybody can see these videos. Anybody can see that this victim is not a domestic terrorist.”
Ridiculously insisting that the woman was merely trying to turn when she gunned her car toward the agent, Frey said, “I mean, my goodness, she’s like doing a three or a 4 or 5 point turn. This looks like somebody that’s trying to get out of there. If doing a three-point turn or a four-point turn is a domestic terrorist, and my wife is a criminal every single day.”
Concluding, he snapped, “This does not make sense. We’ve got to be operating from a point of, of course, have this investigation. It should be a neutral, unbiased investigation where you get the facts, you know. And by the way, I shouldn’t be the one conducting the investigation, nor should Kristi Noem. But you should have an entity that is able to do it with some common sense and operating in reality.”
Watch him here: