ABC Analyst Smears ICE Agent in Minneapolis, Suggests He Didn’t Know What He Was Doing

Late Wednesday morning, the  U.S. military’s actions in Venezuela became old news and no longer the top national news story following a deadly, Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) officer-involved shooting in Minneapolis. The broadcast networks largely went wall-to-wall on their free, 24-hour streaming channels and, in some cases, the scorching hot takes were almost immediate.

ABC News Live weekday afternoon host Kyra Phillips touted far-left Mayor Jacob Frey’s (D) deranged, profanity-laced lecture, calling it “powerful words...after ICE agents killed a woman” who was “unarmed”:

 

Phillips was recapping the comments made at the press conference, but it wasn’t prudent to simply parroting the police chief’s claim that the woman was “unarmed” when most reasonable people would point out a vehicle can be used as a deadly weapon.

Thankfully, ABC News contributor and former longtime NYPD official Robert Boyce respectfully fact-checked her:

 

Fellow ABC News contributor Elizabeth Neumann — who served in the first Trump administration before becoming a Never Trump, Principles First-style Democrat — recklessly speculated this officer likely had no clue what he was doing when he shot the woman dead (click “expand” to read her full comments):

 

[W]e do need to wait for more of the facts to become evident, but it is really alarming as an American to see such a discrepancy between the story that DHS is telling and what the mayor is saying. But maybe taking a step back. Part of what we heard, that police chief note is that this — this is what they have been warning about, that it's only a matter of time when you have two things happening. One, a very provocative approach to ICE that, look, ICE is codified under law. The idea that we need to do immigration enforcement has been on the books for a long, long time. But the way that this administration is doing it is extremely provocative and increases the chance that you're going to have protesters, right? So, you're — you're being provocative to local communities and creating the moment where tragedy can occur.

But the second thing that I think we're — we're not focused on enough is the fact that ICE had their budget triple under the Big Beautiful Bill that was passed last summer. Triple! It is unprecedented for any agency to triple their budget and be able to handle that amount of money. Well, what they have done is hire a number of new agents. In fact, just a few days ago, the Department of Homeland Security announced that they had increased the ICE numbers by 120 percent, so they more than doubled their workforce. There really is no way in any management book to double your workforce and to do so well. So, what that likely means is they've hired a number of people that, under normal circumstances, would not have passed vetting, and they put them through rapid training. And now you have people that are not ready to be managers, elevated to be managers, and a whole system that is really underprepared for complex situations like this. Like, what do you do when you have protesters who are angry with you? And any time you put underprepared officers in situations like this, it is likely that tragedy is going to occur. So, I think that the tragedy is not just this moment, but the fact that we have way too many undertrained ice officers being put in, yes, dangerous positions for them, but also for the public. This needs to de-escalate. ICE needs to take a step back and re — redesign the way that they’re pushing immigration enforcement, so we don’t see any further loss of life.

As he did with Phillips, Boyce chimed in and respectfully called out these charged comments, reminding viewers we “don’t know all the facts,” such as “how long this officer has been in service” or what his “training” was or “prior” service.

Thus, he argued, “it’s difficult to...make this pretty broad” and “premature statement” and any deadly physical force training in law enforcement requires a 100 percent passage.

“The rancor I see between the politics here can only add to that. So, I wish the mayor and he was both calming and inflaming at the same time. Really, really have to walk this back a little bit and speak — and speak clearly on and understand what's going on here,” he added.

Neumann responded by insisting she wasn’t impugning the officer before learning their background, but then promptly did just that in smearing them as likely trigger-happy and untrained:

 

Boyce kept his composure following Neumann’s doubling down (click “expand”):

These are difficult situations that happen in an instant and also driven by impulse, rather by planning and that's what I think this is right here. Someone — someone's giving you verbal commands, someone in a uniform and you're — you're not obeying them. And so, you hit the gas on your car...[U]ntil you find out exactly, — these things, you can train. You try to isolate a car. She's blocking an incident, which is what the chief said...She was blocking ICE  actions, which is against the law — it’s OGA — an obstructing governmental information — administration, excuse me.

And then you look at this instantaneous thing where all of a sudden officers being charged over the car and it's really case-by-case. Can that officer safely get out of the way? Because they're going to arrest that person down the line. Unfortunately, there’s no issue about that. But also could — or could that officer not? The — the video I saw — the officer was brushed against. I don't know if he's the shooter or not. I don't and it seems to be a single shooter.

Neumann came back around shortly after 2:30 p.m. Eastern and predictably cautioned viewers to not trust anything coming from the administration:

 

Yet again, Boyce gave a rebuttal as someone who’s “investigated several hundred of shooting incidents in the NYPD,” stating “you really have to take a hard look at these things and blot out all that noise” and “make two decisions: Is the officer within guidelines of their actions? Do they take legal and reasonable, reasonable accommodation to protect themselves? Secondly, were the tactics appropriate or were they...missing there?”

Neumann couldn’t stop digging as she heard this and discounted the chance there will be an serious investigation because “this administration...see[s] the provocative approach” and “anti-migrant language” as more appealing than the rule of law.

“It is like part of their playbook to make the United States feel very uncomfortable for not just people who are undocumented, but for lawful legal immigrants,” the severe Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) patient added.

Over at NBC, they had an extended network Special Report spanning much of the afternoon. Early on, NBC Homeland Security correspondent Julia Ainsley blamed the shooting on — without naming him — Nick Shirley:

 

At almost the exact same time, CBS correspondent Nicole Sganga was cautiously describing the scene in Minneapolis on CBS News 24/7 when she suddenly stop because an elderly, white, liberal Boomer started yelling at her:

 

Fast-forwarding to the 3:00 p.m. Eastern, producer Anna Schecter appealed for calm and reminding viewers about what was known, unknown, and some basics on what is and is not covered under First Amendment activities:

 

NBC News law enforcement analyst Jim Cavanaugh — whom we’ve called on here before — was much more like Schecter when he surfaced to give his insights: