White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused an Irish reporter of being a “left-wing activist” during a heated confrontation on Thursday over the killing of Renee Good by a US immigration agent last week.
Beginning his question during the White House press briefing, Niall Stanage, a White House columnist for the Hill and a native of Belfast, referred to the Trump administration’s staunch defence of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents and the assertion by the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, that Ice are “doing everything correctly”.
He pointed to statistics showing that last year 32 people died in Ice custody and 170 US citizens were detained by Ice, before noting that Ms Good was “shot in the head and killed by an Ice agent”.
“How does that equate to them doing everything correctly?” he asked Ms Leavitt.
“Why was Renee Good unfortunately and tragically killed?” Ms Leavitt asked. Mr Stanage asked whether Ms Leavitt was asking him his opinion, to which she said: “Yeah.”
“Because an Ice agent acted recklessly and killed her unjustifiably,” Mr Stanage replied.
Ms Leavitt then shot back: “OK, so you’re a biased reporter with a left-wing opinion … Because you’re a left-wing hack. You’re not a reporter, you’re posing in this room as a journalist. And it’s so clear by the premise of your question. And you and the people of the media who have such biases but fake like you’re a journalist, you shouldn’t even be sitting in that seat.”
She went on: “But you’re pretending like you’re a journalist, but you’re a left-wing activist. And the question that you just raised and your answer proves you’re biased. You should be reporting on the facts. You should be reporting on the cases.”
Ms Leavitt told him he should be more focused on how many American citizens were killed by “illegal” immigrants.
Journalist Niall Stanage looks on during a news briefing in the White House. Photograph: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
“I bet you didn’t even read up on those stories,” she said. “I bet you never even read about Laken Riley or Jocelyn Nungaray or all of the innocent Americans who were killed at the hand of illegal aliens in this country and the brave men and women of Ice are doing everything in their power to remove those heinous individuals and make our communities safer. And shame on people like you in the media who have a crooked view and have a biased view and pretend like you’re a real, honest journalist.”
Ms Good (37), a mother of three, was shot and killed by an Ice agent in Minneapolis during a federal immigration enforcement raid on January 7th. Her killing has sparked impassioned protests and condemnation across the country, as well as ongoing political debate over the basic facts of the incident, which was captured on video.
The Trump administration has staunchly defended the agent, who has been identified as Jonathan Ross, claiming that he fired multiple shots at Ms Good in self-defence as she tried to ram him and other officers with her car. The FBI has only just begun investigating the incident.
Donald Trump falsely said in an interview with the New York Times that Ms Good “ran him over”, while Ms Noem accused Ms Good of “domestic terrorism”. JD Vance wrote on X that Mr Ross was “defending his life against a deranged leftist who tried to run him over”.
US officials have also alleged that Mr Ross suffered internal bleeding when he was hit by her vehicle.
However, video reconstruction of the event by the New York Times seems to indicate that the car did not strike Mr Ross and that Ms Good was attempting to flee the area rather than run officers over.
With thousands of federal immigration agents still in Minneapolis after Ms Good’s killing, the city erupted in protests once again following the shooting of a man in the leg during an enforcement operation in a northern neighbourhood on Wednesday, prompting Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, to call on Mr Trump to “turn the temperature down”.
In a statement, he asked the president to “stop this campaign of retribution” and urged demonstrating Minnesotans to “speak out loudly, urgently, but also peacefully”. − Guardian