President Donald Trump gave a bizarre, garbled response to a simple question about what it would mean for the immigration officer who shot and killed a Minnesota mother of three to be immune from prosecution.
Members of the administration have falsely claimed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers enjoy “absolute immunity” for Wednesday’s killing of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen who was shot in the face while trying to drive away from the scene of an ICE protest.
On Sunday, a reporter aboard Air Force One asked Trump, 79, how the administration defined “absolute immunity,” and what it would mean for ICE officers.
“Everyone’s seen it,” Trump replied. “A woman who’s very violent. She’s a, you know, very radical person. Very sad what happened. Her friend was very radical.”
Asked again how he would define absolute immunity, the president offered an even more muddled reply.
“Well, I’m going to let the people define it. But immunity, you know what immunity, what knows means as well as I do,” he said.
Trump seemed to be describing bodycam video that showed Good sitting behind the wheel of her car and calmly telling the ICE agent who would shoot her minutes later, “That’s fine, dude, I’m not mad at you.”
Immigration agents circled Good’s SUV while another woman believed to be Good’s wife, Rebecca, stood outside and filmed them. The officers then ordered Good to get out of her car. She tried to pull away instead, and an officer shot her three times in the head.
“F—ing b—-,” the officer yelled while the car continued for a few feet before swerving and crashing into parked cars.
Both Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem originally said Good was trying to run over the agents with her car, with Noem accusing the Christian stay-at-home mother of “domestic terrorism.”
After video emerged showing that in fact Good’s tires were turned away from the agent, Yale Law School graduate Vice President JD Vance implied the facts were irrelevant because the shooter was “doing his job” and was therefore covered by full federal immunity.
In fact, the Supreme Court has held that the president enjoys absolute immunity from criminal persecution for all “official acts,” but has not extended that same protection to other federal officials.
The Trump administration has nevertheless tried to prevent the state of Minnesota, which has jurisdiction over potential murder cases, from investigating Good’s killing. Over the weekend, thousands of people protested her death at hundreds of anti-ICE rallies in cities across the U.S.
Asked aboard Air Force One whether he believed it was necessary to use deadly force against Good, Trump refused to give a straight answer.
“It was highly disrespectful of law enforcement,” said Trump, who last year pardoned more than 1,500 defendants who attacked police officers during the deadly Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021.
“The woman and her friend were highly disrespectful of law enforcement,” Trump continued. “You saw that they were harassing them, were following for days and for hours. Uh, and I think frankly they’re professional agitators.”
Good and her wife had just dropped off their 6-year-old son at school when they came across protesters trying to disrupt an ICE raid and decided to stop, according to Good’s ex-husband.
When the reporter tried to ask Trump whether “disrespect” was enough to justify summarily killing a U.S. citizen, the president interrupted her.
“I’d like to find out—and we are going to find out—who’s paying for it,” he said.
The administration has repeatedly claimed that millions of anti-Trump protesters are being paid by shadowy radical groups, but that somehow the FBI has not yet figured out who’s behind the vast conspiracy.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
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