White House Press Secretary Lashes Out at Journalist to Avoid Answering Tough Question About ICE Conduct
"What was inaccurate about what I said?" asked the Hill's Niall Stanage.
Instead of answering a difficult question about the conduct of immigration agents, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt lashed out at a reporter during a press briefing on Thursday, degrading him as "biased" and a "hack."
In recent days, following an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent's fatal shooting of 37-year-old mother of three Renee Good last week in Minneapolis, officers of ICE and other federal agencies have been documented engaging in blatant racial profiling, unconstitutional "citizenship checks," and extreme uses of physical force, including another shooting of a man at a traffic stop on Wednesday night.
The White House has given unqualified support to Good's killer, claiming he shot in self-defense and attempted to squelch Minnesota's efforts to launch a criminal investigation into the shooting, even as video of the incident contradicts their narrative of events.
Niall Stanage, a Northern Irish-American journalist who works a White House columnist at the Hill, questioned Leavitt about a recent statement by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem that ICE agents were doing "everything correctly."
He pointed out that "32 people died in ICE custody last year, 170 US citizens were detained by ICE, and Renee Good was shot in the head and killed by an ICE agent," and asked Leavitt, "How does that equate to them doing everything correctly?"
Rather than answer the question, Leavitt began to interrogate Stanage about his personal viewpoint on the shooting of Good.
"Why was Renee Good unfortunately and tragically killed?" she asked the reporter.
Befuddled, he responded, "Are you asking me my opinion?" to which she said, "Yes."
"Because an ICE agent acted recklessly and killed her unjustifiably," Stanage answered.
"OK, so you're a biased reporter with a left-wing opinion," Leavitt shouted in response.
“What do you want me to do?” Stanage interjected, clearly confused since Leavitt herself had asked him to give his opinion.
The press secretary went on: "You're a left-wing hack. You're not a reporter. You're posing in this room as a journalist, and it's so clear by the premise of your question."
"You and the people in the media who have such biases but fake like you're a journalist, you shouldn't even be sitting in that seat," she continued. "But you're pretending like you're a journalist, but you're a left-wing activist..."
Stanage again interjected, drowned out by Leavitt's continued ranting, asking, "What was inaccurate about what I said?"
Leavitt continued that Stanage's answer to her question on his opinion of the shooting "proves you're biased." She added, "You should be reporting on the facts."
Notably, she did not attempt to provide any evidence that Stanage was incorrect about any of the facts he cited.
She then pivoted the conversation away from ICE's conduct: "Do you have the numbers of how many American citizens were killed at the hands of illegal aliens who ICE is trying to remove from this country? I bet you don't."
She said she "bet" Stanage "never even read about Laken Riley or Jocelyn Nungaray," both young women who were killed in 2024 by assailants found to be in the United States without authorization.
"The brave men and women of ICE are doing everything in their power to remove those heinous individuals and make our country safer,” she said. “Shame on you people in the media who have a crooked view, a biased view, and pretend you’re an honest journalist.”
Ryan Sprouse, an assignment editor at CBS News, noted on social media that after making the scene, Leavitt "didn’t answer his question." It was evident to many observers that she was attempting to avoid discussing a subject that has become increasingly difficult for the Trump administration to spin.
The majority of Americans now hold negative opinions of ICE. According to a CNN poll conducted by SSRS and released Wednesday, just 26% of Americans said they felt Good's killing was justified, while 56% said it was an inappropriate use of force. That same poll found that 51% felt ICE's presence was making US cities less safe, compared with just 31% who felt it was making them safer.
A poll earlier this week by YouGov revealed that for the first time ever, "abolishing ICE" had more support (46%) than opposition (43%).
In response to Leavitt's outburst, another social media user quipped that by her logic, "apparently the majority of Americans are 'left-wing.'"
