White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday blamed Democrats for the chaos unfolding in Minneapolis as President Donald Trump considers invoking the Insurrection Act.
Tensions have risen in the city since the killing of 37-year-old Renee Good at the hands of an ICE agent. In the wake of that incident, even more demonstrators have taken to the streets to protest the presence of ICE. The Trump administration has deployed thousands of agents into the city amid claims of widespread migrant-related fraud.
On Thursday morning, Trump claimed on Truth Social that he would use the Insurrection Act — allowing him to deploy U.S. military troops into the city — if lawmakers didn’t stop protesters from interfering with ICE operations.
Asked by Daily Caller correspondent Reagan Reese what Trump’s “tipping point” was to officially use the act, Leavitt took aim at the Democrats who have criticized Trump’s use of ICE since the start of his second term.
“And it’s truly shameful that now, for more than a year, you’ve had elected Democrat governors and mayors who have basically held their state and local law enforcement hostage,” Leavitt said, “And told them, you cannot cooperate with federal law enforcement. Why? They cooperated under the Biden administration. It’s because these Democrats are deranged in their hatred for President Trump, and they are holding their state and local law enforcement hostage as a result; and these Democrat mayors and governors are doing this over what? Over the lawful and legitimate law enforcement operations to remove violent criminals from the streets of Minnesota, from the streets of California, from the streets of New York, and from the streets of every state across this country.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) initially had harsh words for the Trump administration in the immediate aftermath of Good’s killing. When Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, the governor made a public appeal to “turn the temperature down.”
Watch above via Fox News.
