White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt completely lost it at a columnist who challenged administration claims that ICE was doing everything by the book amid escalating violence in Minnesota.
The Trump administration has been fiercely defending the actions of ICE agents after an officer shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis, and a man was shot in the leg after allegedly assaulting an officer.
Videos circulating online have captured agents aggressively detaining individuals.
At the White House briefing, The Hill columnist Niall Stanage rattled off a series of statistics to Leavitt and raised Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s claim that agents were doing everything correctly.
“32 people died in ICE custody last year. 170 U.S. citizens were detained by ICE, and Renee Good was shot in the head and killed by an ICE agent,” Stanage said. “How does that equate to them doing everything correctly?”
Leavitt responded by challenging him, asking why Renee Good, the 37-year-old mother who was fatally shot in her SUV on a residential Minneapolis street, was killed.
Stanage said his opinion was that an ICE agent had “acted recklessly and killed her unjustifiably.”
That was when Leavitt, 28, went ballistic on the veteran columnist from the podium.
“Oh, ok, so you’re a biased reporter with a left-wing opinion,” she started.
Stanage asked what she wanted him to do, but the press secretary was not done berating him.
“Yeah, 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,” she raged.
She said he and others in the media with such biases were “fake, like you’re a journalist. You shouldn’t even be sitting in that seat.”
She accused him of pretending like he’s a journalist, “but you’re a left-wing activist.”
“The question that you just raised and your answer proves your biases,” Leavitt claimed.
The White House press secretary claimed he should be “reporting on the facts, you should be reporting on the cases.”
“Do you have the numbers of how many American citizens were killed at the hands of illegal aliens who ICE is trying to remove from this country?” Leavitt said, leaning forward. “I bet you don’t. I bet you didn’t even read up on those stories.”
Stanage tried to respond calmly, but the press secretary wouldn’t stop, praising ICE and claiming they were working to make 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,” Leavitt snapped.
Stanage tried to ask what was inaccurate about what he had said, but Leavitt quickly moved to another question.
She did not address the statistics he had raised about ICE in his question.
Her rant came soon after she took the first question in the briefing from conservative political activist Riley Gaines, who brought her family along as she attended in the “new media” seat, an addition in the briefing room by the Trump administration that is often filled with pro-MAGA influencers who rattle off right-wing talking points.
Stanage was not the only person Leavitt snapped at on Thursday for their question. She also slammed another reporter who questioned Trump “joking” about cancelling the election.
Elsewhere in the briefing, Leavitt held up images of the protests in Minneapolis and a printout of the faces of alleged undocumented immigrants the administration claims were being targeted by ICE in Minnesota.
On Thursday morning, President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy U.S. troops to the streets of Minneapolis after protesters clashed with federal agents.
The post Raging Leavitt Melts Down After Being Challenged Over ICE appeared first on The Daily Beast.
