WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President JD Vance on Thursday blamed a federal immigration officer’s fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman on “a left-wing network,” Democrats, the news media and the woman who was killed as protests related to her death expanded to cities across the country.
The vice president, who made his critiques in a rare appearance in the White House briefing room and on social media, was the most prominent example yet of the Trump administration quickly assigning culpability for the death of 37-year-old Renee Good while the investigation is still underway. Good was shot and killed by an ICE officer while she tried to drive away on a snowy residential street as officers were carrying out an operation related to the administration’s immigration crackdown.
Vance stated that he wasn’t worried about prejudging the investigation into Good’s killing and insisted, “What you see is what you get in this case.” He suggested that Good accelerated her car into the officer, although it remains unclear whether video evidence supports that claim. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called arguments for self-defense “garbage.”
Meanwhile, Vance expressed a degree of sympathy for Good, referring to her as “brainwashed” and a victim of leftist ideology. As tensions increased following the shooting, he emphasized, “This was an attack on law and order. This was an attack on the American people,” in an apparent defense of law enforcement.
President Trump and other officials echoed Vance’s sentiment, suggesting the officer’s actions were justified. Trump described Good as having “viciously run over” the ICE officer, despite evidence to the contrary from video footage. The Trump administration continues to emphasize a crackdown on crime and immigration in Democratic cities.
Vance concluded his comments by calling for a focus on the ballot box for concerns regarding immigration policy, stating, “The best way to turn down the temperature is to tell people to take their concerns about immigration policy to the ballot box.”
