ICE Shooting Sparks Dispute Over Probe and Public Claims (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: First of all, the Department of Justice is going to investigate this. The Department of Homeland Security is already investigating this. But the simple fact is what you see is what you get in this case. You have a woman who is trying to obstruct a legitimate law enforcement operation. Nobody debates that. You have a woman who aimed her car at a law enforcement officer and pressed on the accelerator. Nobody debates that. I can believe that her death is a tragedy while also recognizing that it's a tragedy of her own making and a tragedy of the far left who has marshaled an entire movement, a lunatic fringe, against our law enforcement officers. I think what is clearly happening here, and it's going to keep on happening unless the Democrats wake up and say, you know what? You don't have to agree with our immigration policies. You don't have to agree with what the president or the vice president believe about immigration enforcement. But why don't you take this to the ballot box? Why don't you vote? Why don't you organize? Instead, what some of them are doing, what some of them are doing is encouraging people to get violent with our law enforcement officials. It's disgraceful, and it's got to stop.

[00:01:02] Speaker 2: So the head of Minnesota's investigations agency says that the U.S. attorney's office has essentially cut off the state investigations agency's access to the investigation. What is the precedent for that? And why shouldn't the Minnesota officials on the ground have access and evidence to work on this investigation?

[00:01:18] Speaker 1: First of all, I wish the state officials in Minnesota would investigate why you have so many people who are using their vehicles and other means to actually interfere with a legitimate law enforcement operation. The precedent here is very simple. You have a federal law enforcement official engaging in federal law enforcement action. That's a federal issue. That guy is protected by absolute immunity. He was doing his job. The idea that Tim Walz and a bunch of radicals in Minneapolis are going to go after and make this guy's life miserable because he was doing the job that he was asked to do is preposterous. The unprecedented thing is the idea that a local official can actually prosecute a federal official with absolute immunity. I've never seen anything like that. It would get tossed out by a judge. So what I'd like Minnesota to focus on is the real issue, that they're encouraging people. Minneapolis officials are encouraging people to commit violence against ICE officials. It's ridiculous. It's got to stop. Go ahead. Mr.

[00:02:12] Speaker 3: President, thank you. You said earlier that there's a left-wing network to attack, to dox, to assault, and make it impossible for ICE officers to do their job. You told my colleague just now that there's an investigation going on into that network. So if everything that you say is true, how does being part of that network justify being shot?

[00:02:39] Speaker 1: Well, being part of the network doesn't justify being shot, but ramming an ICE officer with your car, that's what justifies being shot. It's not a good thing, by the way, but when you force somebody to engage in self-defense, it's almost a preposterous question. I'm not saying that funding some of this stuff justifies capital punishment. Nobody would suggest that. The reason this woman is dead is because she tried to ram somebody with her car, and that guy acted in self-defense. That is why she lost her life, and that is the tragedy. Now, there may be other violations of the law and other penalties that are associated with those violations of the law. For example, if you are funding violence against our law enforcement officers, I'm not a prosecutor. My guess is that's not the sort of thing that earns capital punishment, but it should sure as hell earn you a few years in prison if you're funding the effort to try to assault our law enforcement officers. I'm sorry, guys. What's going on here? You guys are meant to report the truth. How have you let yourself become agents of propaganda of a radical fringe that's making it harder for us to enforce our laws? You just asked me a question that presumed that the reason why this woman died is because she was engaged in legitimate protest. She tried to run somebody over with her car, and the guy defended himself when that happened. Next question.

[00:04:01] Speaker 3: I said next question.

[00:04:02] Speaker 4: I want to go now to John Sandweg, the former ICE acting director. John, what did you think of what you heard?

[00:04:12] Speaker 5: You know, Brianna, it's very disappointing to see the Vice President of the United States rush out to these conclusions when there's an investigation underway. It makes it incredibly hard for me to understand how anyone is going to see the results of that investigation as credible when the Vice President, the President, the Secretary have formally concluded that the shooting was justified and ascribed motivations to the deceased in this case. You know, Brianna, really quickly, I think every person who I worked with at ICE I spoke to about this, many of whom support the President's initiative, some of whom support the President's initiative, some have concerns, but all of whom agree that there are serious questions here. And the proper protocol is to conduct the investigation as is required by internal DHS rules, as this happens in every other shooting case, and for the Secretary and the department leadership to refrain from making any judgment until that investigation is complete. And again, it's not just important, it's important for the credibility of the agency, which is so critical for the agency's ability to operate. But again, at this point, I mean, I was just very surprised to see him speak so conclusively. And I'll just say one other thing, to say that we need to wait. I mean, Tom Holman, I saw an interview with Tom Holman, where he said, we cannot, I cannot make a judgment at this point because the investigation is not complete. And Tom was 100% right about that. But to say that if you say you have questions or we need to wait for the investigation, that somehow you support open borders, or that you are inciting violence against ICE agents, I just find that to be very disappointing. This was a tragic accident. It deserves our respect. It deserves a thorough investigation. It doesn't deserve to become a political topic or a rush to judgment.

[00:05:46] Speaker 4: And Josh Campbell, to you, you've been going through the various videos over the course of the last days we've gotten them. Talk about what you see versus what Vance is saying.

[00:06:00] Speaker 6: Well, the videos don't paint as clear a picture as we've heard from the president, from the Department of Homeland Security secretary, from the vice president. And I agree with everything that John just said. And I would take that a step further. I'm not in the prediction game, but I think you can bet that there is no chance that this agent actually gets prosecuted because what that would take is for the attorney general and the FBI to counter the president, the vice president, the Homeland Security secretary in this politically charged era. I just don't see that happening. What do we see on the video? Let's take a look at ourselves. And one thing the vice president noted is he said that the driver here deliberately tried to run over this ICE agent. I think it's a lot more nuance on that. Look at the front left quarter panel of that little SUV there. And you see at one point, the front tires will turn. So it's clear she's trying to get away from the agents, which if this was a lawful detention, that would have been unlawful to try to flee. But to think that she was trying to mow this agent down when it was clear that she was trying to cut away from them doesn't really tell that same story. Yet we see these definitive conclusions come out from the leaders. I think that one thing that we'll have to wait and see, and maybe we won't get this information, but a lot of times, all the time, in fact, it will come down to the vantage point of the agent. I was a federal agent. I'll tell you that it's drilled into you that you can only use deadly force when there's an imminent threat to yourself or someone else. Can that agent articulate that? It looks like the vehicle did strike him at some point. Was that enough for him to fear for his life when he could have maybe moved out of the way? Those are all the questions we have. But one thing we know is he went to guns and now someone's deceased. So we'll have to see where this investigation goes.

[00:07:44] Speaker 4: And he was very sensitive, as the vice president said. Certainly, there are going to be questions about that. Kristen Holmes, to you at the White House, what stood out to you in this?

[00:07:55] Speaker 7: Well, exactly what our previous guests are talking about, particularly John and the fairness of the investigation. Just to note, that was my question to Vice President Vance, was if the federal government says that the entirety of their weight is behind this ICE agent, if they say that they support the ICE agent, that this is domestic terrorism, then what is this ongoing federal investigation actually looking at? They've already seemed to have made their determination. Were they even investigating that ICE officer? And he brushed it off with this idea that DHS is doing an investigation that changed the subject to the fraud in Minnesota. And the reason why it is so critical for this investigation is for what we're seeing now in the Associated Press. They did an interview with Good's ex-husband, who described her as not an activist, that she had never participated in any protest of any kind. He said that she was described as a devoted Christian who took part in youth mission trips to Northern Ireland when she was younger. She loved to sing. And her ex-husband also noted that the reason that she was driving at the time is that she had just dropped off her six-year-old at school. To be clear, we don't know the circumstances around why she was on that street. That is what an investigation is for. Now you are hearing somebody who knew her, who knew her whereabouts, talking about who she was as a person, her involvement with protesting. Of course, we know that just moments ago, Vice President Vance linked her to radical left protesters that were fighting ICE and law enforcement agents. This would all be part of that larger investigation. However, again, it seemed after we saw Vance today, and we've already seen Kristi Noem, we've seen members of the administration, that the federal government has made up their mind and determined that they are standing behind the ICE officer, that this was self-defense.

[00:09:46] Speaker 4: All right, Kristen, thank you so much, and thank you so much to all of our folks there following this White House briefing.