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President Donald Trump joined White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt for her daily briefing on Tuesday, Jan. 20, where he spoke to reporters for nearly an hour about a variety of topics.
Marking the one-year anniversary of his second inauguration, Trump’s staff provided members of the press with a printed list of “365 wins” from his first 365 days in office. However, most of the president’s talking points were his current hot-button issues, like the economy, his plans to take over Greenland and the ongoing unrest in Minneapolis.
When asked about the Jan. 7 shooting death of Renee Nicole Good, which has sparked further protests, as well as calls from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey to remove Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers from the city, Trump was quick to defend the agency.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty; Romanucci & Blandin
“They’re gonna make mistakes sometimes,” he said. “ICE is gonna be too rough with somebody or- you know, they’re dealing with rough people. They’re gonna make a mistake sometimes. It can happen.”
The president continued, “We feel terrible. I felt horribly when I was told that the young woman had the tragedy. But when I learned her father is a — I hope he still is, but I don’t know — was a tremendous Trump fan. He was all for Trump. Loved Trump.”
“And, you know, it’s terrible. It’s so sad. It just happens,” he added.
Trump also reiterated his previously stated comments that professional agitators were present at the scene of Good’s death.
“When she was shot, there was another woman that was screaming, ‘Shame. Shame. Shame. Shame.’ So loud. Like a professional opera singer,” he said. “She was so loud. And so professional. She wasn’t a woman that was hurt like, ‘Oh my heart is injured.’ She was a professional.”
He added, “These are professional agitators and professional people that want to see our country do badly.”
In a Jan. 15 post on Truth Social, Trump repeated a past threat to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minneapolis as tensions continue to escalate between civilians and ICE agents.
“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State,” Trump wrote.
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Trump has been careful with his language in his comments about Good’s killing. In a Jan. 13 interview with CBS Evening News’ Tony Dokoupil, he went back and forth, saying he believed Good was likely a “solid” person, but that her actions were “very bad.”
“I would bet you that she, under normal circumstances, was a very solid, wonderful person. But, you know, her actions were pretty tough,” he said.
Referencing cell phone footage of the shooting that was later made public, Trump also flip-flopped.
“When you look at that tape, it— it can be viewed two ways, I guess,” he said. “But when you look at the way… that car was pulled away, there are a couple versions of that tape that are very, very bad.”
