Kristi Noem was visibly stunned after being confronted by Jake Tapper on the shooting death of Renee Good, a Minneapolis mom of three who was killed by an ICE agent this month.
In the final minutes of CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, Tapper played Noem footage from the January 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol and compared the events of that day to what transpired the day Good died.
“Those are law enforcement officers being physically attacked,” he said. “By this standard, would any of those officers be justified in shooting and killing the people causing them physical harm?”
Noem then appeared to say Capitol police would have been within their rights to shoot protestors on January 6.
“Every single situation is going to rely on the situation those officers are in,” she answered. “But they know that when people are putting hands on them, when they are using weapons against them, when they’re physically harming them, that they have the authority to arrest those individuals.”
After Tapper pointed out Donald Trump pardoned the rioters, Noem seemed to search for another point. “And every single one of these investigations comes in the full context of the situation on the ground,” she said.
She continued: “And that’s one thing that President Trump has been so focused on — is making sure that when we’re out there, we don’t pick and choose which situations are in which laws are enforced and which ones aren’t. Every single one is being enforced under the Trump administration, and the clarity of the law stands. And if people don’t like it, these members of Congress and elected officials should go change the law and make sure they have that debate and policy.”
But Tapper pressed on. “I just showed you video of people attacking law enforcement officers,” he said. “Undisputed proof, undisputed evidence. And I just said President Trump pardoned all of them. And you said that President Trump is enforcing all the laws equally. It’s just not true. There’s a different standard for law enforcement officials being attacked if they’re being attacked by Trump supporters. We just saw that.”
Noem dodged Tapper’s point and offered, “This individual, and these instances, and these investigations all have to be taken and done correctly in context of every situation that is happening on the ground … The Department of Homeland Security is out there with our law enforcement officers, making sure that we’re targeting the worst of the worst and that we are talking factually about each situation and making sure we are bringing those perpetuators of violence back to justice, bringing them to justice and making sure they face consequences for their crimes.”
The Trump White House disputed reporting about Good’s death last week.
“I am hereby calling on the New York Times to update their reporting on the ICE Agent’s self defense in Minnesota,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an X post Friday. “President Trump was right again.”
Leavitt also shared a screenshot of the Times’ interview with Trump that was published Thursday, in which the president watched video of the shooting.
“On Thursday, after our interview with the president, a Times analysis of footage from three camera angles showed a motorist was driving away from — not toward — a federal officer when he opened fire,” the Times’ story read.
“But on Wednesday night, Mr. Trump stuck to his position even as we pointed out the inconsistencies in his account and the lack of clarity in videos circulating on social media. We asked if, in his mind, firing into a vehicle like that was acceptable.
“’She behaved horribly,’ Mr. Trump said. ‘And then she ran him over. She didn’t try to run him over. She ran him over.’”
In new footage, which firing ICE agent Jonathan Ross took on his own cellphone, Ross is seen getting out of his car and walking toward Good while she’s in her vehicle. He then approaches Good on the driver’s side, where Good tells him, “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you,” referring to him recording her. The footage was originally obtained by Alpha News.
Ross then took video of Good’s license plate as Good’s wife Becca Good recorded him. At one point, Becca asked Ross, “You want to come at us? I say go get yourself some lunch, big boy. Go ahead.”
Immediately afterward, another agent approached Good on the driver’s side of the car and pulled her handle while he told her to “get out of the f–king car.” That’s when Good is shown backing up and turned her wheel to right — as if to move around Ross — and drove forward before Ross yelled in surprise and fired his gun three times.
