Vice President JD Vance claimed Thursday that the woman fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis on Wednesday was “brainwashed,” suggesting without evidence that she was tied to a “broader, left-wing network.”
Vance, his voice at times rising in anger as he took questions in the White House briefing room, also lectured the media for its coverage of the incident while offering few details to back up his version of events.
“I’m not happy that this woman lost her life,” he said of Renee Nicole Good, 37, who was fatally shot during a confrontation with ICE officers Wednesday. President Donald Trump has said that Good was "resisting" orders and "viciously ran over the ICE Officer" during an immigration-related operation in the city. Officials and an eyewitness have disputed this account.
“I’m not happy that this woman was there at a protest violating the law by interfering with the law enforcement action,” Vance added. “I think that we can all recognize that the best way to turn down the temperature is to tell people to take their concerns about immigration policy to the ballot box. Stop assaulting and stop inciting violence against our law enforcement officers. That’s the best way to take down the temperature … We’re not going to give in to terrorism on this and that’s exactly what’s happened.”
Video of the incident has gone viral, with Trump, Vance and other high-ranking members of the administration saying the footage shows the shooting was justified. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, called the claims "bulls---," while Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz accused the administration of promoting "propaganda."
Vance’s appearance Thursday in the briefing room was a rare one for the vice president, underscoring the administration’s eagerness to make him a point man on Minnesota. He joined White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt to discuss the administration’s response to the shooting and to an ongoing fraud investigation involving the alleged misuse of welfare funds in the state. Vance was critical of Walz, his Democratic opponent for vice president in 2024, while also announcing the creation of a new position of associate attorney general to tackle fraud probes in Minnesota and other states.
But Vance was particularly exercised about the shooting, criticizing questions about whether it was warranted. The ICE officer who shot Good, he said, nearly died six months ago after being “dragged by a car” and requiring dozens of stitches in his leg.
“So you think maybe he’s a little bit sensitive about somebody ramming him with an automobile?” Vance said.
Vance also asserted that the media has failed to cover that Good was “part of a broader left-wing network to attack, to dox, to assault and to make it impossible for our ICE officers to do their job.”
“If the media wants to tell the truth,” he added, “they ought to tell the truth that a group of left-wing radicals have been working tirelessly, sometimes using domestic terror techniques to try to make it impossible for the president of the United States to do what the American people elected him to do, which is enforce our immigration laws.”
There has been no evidence released tying Good to left-wing groups. Asked if he was “pre-empting a thorough investigation by drawing such conclusions,” Vance argued that certain details were indisputable.
“You have a woman who was trying to obstruct a legitimate law enforcement operation. Nobody debates that,” he said. “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.”
Vance added, later in the briefing: “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 a tragedy.”
Even so, the vice president at times shifted between condemning Good and acknowledging that he did not know her precise motivations.
“You’ve got to be a little brainwashed to get to that point to where you’re willing, not just to protest, that’s fine — not peacefully protest, but throw your vehicle in front of legitimate law enforcement officers and drive your car into them. To get to that point, you have to be, I think, radicalized in a very, very sad way,” Vance said at one point, without offering proof of Good’s being “radicalized.”
But pressed on whether, after seeing the video, he had no doubt Good acted deliberately to harm the officer, Vance conceded the point — to a point.
“Look, I don’t know what is in a person’s heart or in a person’s head, and obviously we’re not going to get the chance to ask this woman what was going on,” he said. “What I am certain of is that she violated the law. What I’m certain of is that that officer had every reason to think that he was under very serious threat for injury or, in fact, his life. What I’m certain of is that she accelerated in a way where she ran into the guy.”
Vance closed the briefing with a parting shot at reporters.
“I think it’s really irresponsible for you guys to go out there and imply or tell the American people that a guy who defended himself from being rammed by an automobile is guilty of murder,” he said. “Be a little bit more careful. We’re going to talk about toning down the temperature, which I know the president wants to do, and I certainly want to do. One of the ways we tone down the temperature is to have a media that tells the truth. I encourage you all to do that.”
