Minnesota Senator ‘Disgusted’ By Kristi Noem Trying To ‘Gaslight’ People About ICE Shooting | EUROtoday

WASHINGTON – Shortly after Wednesday’s deadly capturing of a Minneapolis girl by an ICE agentSen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) was getting particulars from folks straight on the scene.

A longtime group organizerSmith has robust ties to activists in her state, a few of whom headed to the positioning of the capturing and have been sharing folks’s eyewitness accounts of what occurred. But when Smith lastly noticed a video of the capturing that was posted to social media, it was nonetheless a shock.

“I literally gasped in pain and horror,” Smith stated in a Thursday interview. She watched it a number of instances. “When you’re in my job, you have to try to really, fully understand what is happening, at the same time that you’re having, you know, a very human reaction to this awful tragedy,” she stated.

She was nonetheless watching the video clip when Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appeared on her workplace TV. Wildly opposite to the eyewitness accounts Smith was getting, and the video she’d been reviewing, Noem claimed the girl who had simply been shot to loss of life, later recognized as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, had dedicated “an act of domestic terrorism” by attempting to run over an ICE agent together with her automotive.

“Really stunning to watch that,” fumed the Minnesota Democrat. “Kristi Noem, with her big cowboy hat on, telling us all exactly what had happened – and it was so clearly at odds with the one eyewitness video that I’d seen at that point. I was just disgusted to see them immediately try to spin this and gaslight people about what had happened.”

Smith stated she was aware of the truth that a video can solely present one viewpoint, however Noem’s declare defied the proof. Multiple movies with completely different angles of the state of affairs present Good, a mom of three, apparently attempting to drive away, not doing something threatening or violent towards ICE brokers on the road. One individual on the scene informed HuffPost that Good appeared “obviously scared” and was attempting to depart.

President Donald Trump has since doubled down on Noem’s model of occasions, piling on inflammatory rhetoric and falsely claiming on social media that Good “violently, willfully and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense.” Vice President JD Vance straight-up blamed Good for being shot to loss of life throughout a briefing on Thursday, baselessly claiming she belonged to a “broader left-wing network.”

After Minnesota officers challenged the federal authorities’s model of occasionsthe state was shut out of the investigation into the capturing.

On Thursday, Minnesota state investigators stated the FBI was denying them entry to proof essential for finishing up a probe into the capturing. The FBI routinely works with the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension on investigations, however not this time. The BCA, which isn’t a political entity, issued an announcement clarifying that it was being blocked by the feds.

“So angry,” Smith stated when requested concerning the Trump administration’s response.

“The federal government should not be seen by my community as an enemy, and that is how it feels to a lot of people right now who are in the midst of this,” stated the senator. “That the federal government can’t be trusted, that they are killing people on the street.”

She said her office immediately called the FBI when she learned they were denying BCA a role in the investigation, telling them what they’re doing is unacceptable. Minnesotans will have no reason to believe the FBI’s probe will be fair or unbiased, she warned, given the way top Trump administration officials have already been trying to blame Good for the shooting.

The FBI’s response? They told her office they’re unable to talk about the matter because it’s an active investigation. Pure nonsense, said Smith.

“We pushed back hard on that because they’ve already talked – not only talked about the investigation, but they’ve talked about what they have concluded happened without any investigation,” stated the senator. “So they have no standing to say, ’Oh, we can’t talk about this,” after they’ve already talked about it.”

For now, the Minnesota senator says she’s focused on doing whatever she can to ensure there’s a credible investigation into what happened to Good. She also wants ICE out of her state.

“There’s no question in my mind that the ICE agents in Minnesota are contributing to public unsafety, and I think that they should leave,” she said.

Instead, the administration is reportedly planning to surge officers from Customs and Border Protection to Minnesota.

The whole situation is “horrifying,” Smith added, and feels like Trump is waging “some sort of bizarre political attack on my state and our constituents.”

“Where is the humanity here?” she asked. “How far are they really gonna go?”