Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison fired back at Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) after he blamed the state official for the deaths of two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were killed by Department of Homeland Security agents.
During a Senate Homeland Security hearing on Thursday, Johnson grilled Ellison on the use of First Amendment rights in Minnesota.
“Are you aware of training for activists, Mr. Ellison?” Johnson asked. “In Minnesota, some of these protesters literally went through training… Are you aware of that?”
“Yeah, I’m aware of that,” the attorney general replied. “I mean, it’s common for people to use their First Amendment right to protest things that they don’t believe are right.”
“Were you aware of the First Amendment activity, sir?” Johnson demanded. “Were you aware that Signal chat that was being used to deploy those people?”
“I’m aware it exists, but this is First Amendment activity, sir,” Ellison noted. “I freely admit being in favor of the First Amendment.”
Johnson became irate as he continued his questioning.
“I can’t imagine encouraging somebody that supported me politically to go and put themselves into harm’s way,” he snapped. “A couple of illegal immigrants were inadvertently killed because people were shooting at ICE officers. Their vehicles have been rammed by some of these peaceful protesters, probably the trained activists. They’ve had rocks thrown at their vehicles!”
“I, as a government official, would have said, back off,” he continued. “Let us work with ICE. Let’s cooperate with them. Let’s see if we can’t de-escalate this. But Attorney General, you did the exact opposite. And two people are dead because you encouraged them to put themselves into harm’s way!”
“And now you’re exploiting those two martyrs. That was a tragedy. It never should have happened… Is it any wonder they’re at hair trigger alert? A tragedy was going to happen, and you encouraged it! And you ought to feel damn guilty about it!”
Johnson could be heard speaking after cutting off his microphone.
“Now sit there and smirk,” he said. “Smirk. It’s sick. It is despicable.”
“Are you asking me for comment, Senator?” Ellison asked. “Because everything you said was untrue. It was a nice theatrical performance, but it was all lies.”
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