Vice President JD Vance on Thursday accused reporters of lying about an ICE agent’s killing of a woman in Minneapolis and claimed her death was “a tragedy of her own making.”
During a White House press briefing, Vance claimed media outlets’ reporting on how an ICE agent on Wednesday killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good was an “absolute disgrace” and claimed she perpetrated an “attack” on law enforcement operations.
“This was an attack on federal law enforcement,” Vance said. “This was an attack on law and order. This was an attack on the American people. The way that the media, by and large, has reported this story has been an absolute disgrace, and it puts our law enforcement officers at risk every single day.”
“You should be ashamed of yourselves,” he added — before he began taking questions from reporters in the room.
Video analyzed by the New York Times appears to show Good’s vehicle moving away from the agent, contradicting the administration’s claims that she attempted to ram the officer with her car.
Still, Vance‘s passionate defense of the ICE agent’s actions during the briefing — and his admonishment of media outlets — mirrored his and the administration’s vocal online rebukes of those who criticized the ICE agents. Vance said on X that “the entire administration” stands behind ICE agents, called Good a “deranged leftist” and alleged that she tried to ram into the agent with her car.
A reporter asked Vance whether he believed there was any risk to impeding an investigation into the incident by concluding Good was a “deranged leftist” ahead of a thorough examination. The vice president responded that, while a Department of Homeland Security investigation was ongoing, “what you see is what you get.”
“I can believe that her death is a tragedy while also recognizing that it’s a tragedy of her own making, a tragedy of the far left who has marshaled an entire movement, a lunatic fringe, against our law enforcement officers,” Vance said.
Other reporters questioned whether Vance truly believed Good tried to ram her car into the agent “despite seeing this video.” “There’s not the slightest doubt in your mind, having viewed it?” one asked, while another pressed him on what he’d say to those who saw the incident “in a completely different way” than he did.
Vance acknowledged that some angles — which have been corroborated by news organizations — could show that “it’s not clear what happened,” but he maintained his claim that all angles of the video showed that Good “went right for the guy” with her car.
Vance also announced during the press conference that, following the administration’s response to reports of widespread fraud in Minnesota and other states, the administration would create a new assistant attorney general position to prevent taxpayer fraud that would function similarly to a special counsel. He and the president, he said, would supervise the nominee, who would be sent to the Senate within the next week.
“This is the person who is going to make sure that we stop defrauding the American people,” he said. “I’ve heard a lot of people say that we need a special counsel to investigate fraud in the United States of America. I actually agree, and that’s what this position does.”
