Liberal TV Networks Rush to Dismiss, Downplay ICE Cellphone Video in First Reactions

On Friday afternoon, the Minnesota-based conservative media outlet Alpha News scooped the national press with the first publication of the cellphone video of Minneapolis-based Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) officer Brian Ross’s deadly confrontation Wednesday with Renee Good. As such it took a few hours for the liberal cable networks to share it and, when they did, the early reactions ranged from mixed to outright condemnation of the video providing a definitive account.

MS NOW first aired the video at the start of Katy Tur Reports with the eponymous host arguing “many will disagree” with the belief stated by Vice President JD Vance the video showed the officer was in danger of being hit by Good in her car:

Tur predictably found a former ICE official to call the conduct “a horrific situation for public safety,” the Trump administration’s actions as “bad for” everyone involved, and wonder why ICE was out there in that section of Minneapolis to begin with (click “expand”):

JASON HAUSER: What I see is a — is a horrific situation for public safety. What I see is a horrific situation for federal law enforcement. There is a totality of this event that needs to be thoroughly investigated from all sides, and in a nonpartisan, serious manner by trained federal investigators, by the Office of Professional Responsibility within ICE, within the inspector general, and needs to be looked at holistically. What I see here is the administration seeking to adjudicate this case in the, you know, in the public square on Twitter. That is bad for law enforcement, that is bad for the public, and that is bad for migrants. Even looking at the situation here, what was the predicate for the operation? What was happening? What was the activities that ICE was carrying out in that community? Just specifically on that video? What I see by what is within the use of force handbook within ICE, what has been the directive for the use of force. I see a lot of — of — of — of issues here based on that, that sort of guidance that was developed over the last few years by ICE civilian personnel.

What I also see is potentially now an officer with a gun in one hand and a phone in the other. That isn't a best practice. Also, walking in front of the car in that manner. You know, I've been in been involved in dozens of investigations, both within detention centers and the use of force, but also in — in my career in the military have been investigated for use of force and in combat operations in Afghanistan. We need seriousness brought to this situation. What we have here and foundationally, we need to question what is the public safety need for even these operations occurring in this manner, even to carry out the goals of the current administration? All of this needs to be into question, because clearly migrants have the safety and humane care and processing of immigrants to this country. And now U.S. civilians lives are being put at risk. We need to get back to sound law enforcement practices and sort of take this out of the public domain to be adjudicated in this manner. And all of this puts — puts us all at risk.

Correspondent Alex Tabet found an anti-ICE protester to discount the video as having shown much of anything at all:

 

CNN News Central gave former Comey FBI official-turned-correspondent Josh Campbell the first crack at it and, while he tried to hedge it, he seemed trying to admit the video showed the officer was struck by Good:

 

Former D.C. and Philadelphia police chief Charles Ramsey actually argued the video made Good and her wife look, well, good (and Ross bad):

 

Chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller seemed more in line with Campbell. He at least was definitive in stating how helpful the video is in giving everyone a fuller picture of what took place:

 

Shifting to the broadcast network streaming platforms, ABC News Live gave correspondent Armando Garcia first dibs.

Garcia scoffed the video will matter all that much, predicting the video will yield “more questions than answers.”

ABC News contributor Brad Garrett was like CNN’s Ramsey in stating Ross’s cellphone footage underlined his belief “this is another super sad situation where a lack of communication, I think, caused, not caused, but certainly attitude, somebody’s being harmed.”

Serving in the same role former Trump official-turned-Never Trump Elizabeth Neumann did on ABC News Live Wednesday, former Biden Homeland Security official Marcia Espinoza was unhinged in heralding Good and smearing Ross:

 

On CBS News 24/7, correspondent Ash-har Quraishi was the only person to weigh in and first tried to downplay it by repeatedly emphasizing a cellphone “isn’t a body cam.” Adding “it's hard to make out some of the audio” since it’s “a little bit garbled,” he cited a protester who sure seemed like the same woman MS NOW spoke with.

Thus, the video will be seen as, in Quraishi’s framing, inconclusive and “doesn’t really add much” (click “expand”):

Now, just a few moments ago, I spoke to a young lady who was here at this location who also saw the video, and obviously, people are seeing different things in this video. She says it doesn't show clearly that he was actually hit by the vehicle. She says that what she saw was perhaps he bumped into the vehicle, but there was enough space. She says you can see his feet to the side of the vehicle as the car starts to go around him, and those shots are fired, but again, it just goes to the heart of the issue here, which is that people are looking at these videos and how much space there was here and whether or not she was impeding these officers from taking, you know, taking care of the work that they needed to do and whether or not they were justified in the use of force that was used. Still a debate. This video, some people say, clarifies for them on both sides. So, it doesn't really add much in terms of what we are seeing from people here. They say they're not convinced the other way.

Thankfully, NBC News NOW wasn’t as slanted as correspondent Maggie Vespa was on Today and more in line with Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News.

Here, their initial reactions began with correspondent Julia Ainsley’s quick but dry narration of the video and briefly downplaying it because it’s not as clean as “a bodycam video that would have a much wider perception and would have stayed rolling when he drew his weapon.”

NBC law enforcement and intelligence correspondent Tom Winter – who had multiple moments Wednesday displaying the kind of calm, nuanced, sober analysis more in the press need to embrace – again delivered with another breakdown.

Along with saying the video “gives us a new perspective” and while Ross’s actions ran counter to what his law enforcement sources told him they would have done, Winter predicted this will all be deemed “lawful”:

 

NBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos also provided sensible analysis and said the video makes clear Good and her wife “were confrontation with police” and thus this vantage point gave more data for Ross’s use-of-force calculus:

 

To see the relevant transcripts from January 9, click here (for ABC News Live), here (for CBS News 24/7), here (for NBC News NOW), here (for CNN), and here (for MS NOW).