Networks Play Games on ICE Coverage, Tout MN ‘Fighting Back’ Against ‘Chaotic’ Agents

On Tuesday morning, the broadcast networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC continued down the road of incitement and support for the far-left mobs hellbent on attacking Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) officers over both Wednesday’s death of Renee Good and their push to rid their communities of dangerous illegal immigrants, framing the aggrieved white liberals as “fighting back” against “anti-immigration tactics” causing “chaotic” scenes.

As our Jorge Bonilla established late Monday, the CBS Evening News featured correspondent Nicole Sganga ghoulishly framing last week’s shooting as “murder.”

But, just hours later, someone seems to have called her to the proverbial principal’s office:

Sganga was off of Tuesday’s CBS Mornings and replaced by Iowa-based correspondent Lana Zak. Co-host and Democratic donor Gayle King described the arrest of dangerous illegal immigrants as “anti-immigration tactics”:

Rachel Morin, Jocelyn Nungaray, and Laken Riley were unavailable to comment to King about whether taking hardened criminals off the streets was anti-immigrant.

Zak almost universally stuck to the preferred narrative by the officials that, before Good’s death, were rocked by rampant fraud by their most-beloved constituency, Somalis. All she could muster on the administration’s side was a short soundbite from Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt (which was more than others) (click “expand”):

ZAK: So, the state of Minnesota is accusing federal agents of using aggressive tactics, creating a culture of fear and straining local law enforcement’s ability here to keep the peace.

MINNESOTA ATTORNEY GENERAL KEITH ELLISON (D): This is, in essence, a federal invasion of the twin cities and Minnesota, and it must.

ZAK:  Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sued the Trump administration, claiming that his deployment of federal agents and officers illegally oversteps the state’s law enforcement authority, “endangering the public safety, health, and welfare of all Minnesotans” and “provok[ing]...protests” in the process.

MINNEAPOLIS MAYOR JACOB FREY (D): You’ve seen the videos. At times, there are as many as 50 agents arresting one person. The scale is wildly disproportionate and it has nothing to do with keeping people safe.

ZAK: With clashes continuing between federal law enforcement and demonstrators Monday, the lawsuit pointed to several alleged uses of excessive force.

RENEE GOOD: That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.

ZAK: — including by the ICE agent who shot and killed Renee Good last week.

WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY KAROLINE LEAVITT [on FNC’s America Reports, 01/12/26]: This deranged lunatic woman was trying to ram him over.

ZAK: Trump administration officials claim it was a justified act of self-defense.

FREY: And we’re feeling the impact here in Minneapolis. Schools have closed. People are afraid to go to work, shop, or seek medical care. 911 calls are up.

ZAK: The lawsuit said there will be over 80 911 calls related to immigration enforcement since December 9, estimating that skyrocketing police overtime cost could reach more than $2 million in just a four-day span with local officers reporting “heightened hypervigilance and fear.” In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said the Minnesota lawsuit was “prioritizing politics over public safety,” adding, “we have the Constitution on our side on this and we look forward to proving that in court.” And to give you a sense of the scale of the federal presence here, the Twin Cities have just a little bit over 1,000 agents whereas there are more than 2,000 federal officers and agents here with more on the way. 

Pivoting to ABC’s Good Morning America, co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos celebrated the lawsuit, telling viewers in a tease that Minnesota and fellow blue state Illinois were “[f]ighting back...over the surge in immigration officers.”

Correspondent Faith Abubey completely framed the “dramatic” ICE operations on the terms of the left, boasting “[o]fficials here are accusing DHS of pushing limit of immigration crackdown to sow fear and chaos in this community” and “cost Twin Cities billions in law enforcement resources” to cover what “officials are calling a federal invasion.”

Abubey then parroted more Democrat claims before flashing to video footage: “Minnesota accusing DHS of engaging in unconstitutional stops and arrests, brandishing weapons, and dragging people out of schools and hospitals...Federal agents firing teargas to clear demonstrators after agents were involved in a car crash.”

Abubey didn’t care about providing the administration’s view on-camera and relegated it to a single sentence: “The Trump administration pushing back arguing they are protecting the American people.”

A few hours earlier on Monday’s World News Tonight, ABC anchor David Muir dialed up his usual grocery-store-tabloid shtick to a 12 out of ten, incensed at the presence of a battering ram:

Whom did ICE catch? What was their criminal record? Too busy to check that out!

Abubey also appeared here and tag-teamed with Muir to play stenographers for the mob:

Rewinding to Monday’s NBC Nightly News, anchor Tom Llamas added some of his own fuel, stating this in an opening tease:

Breaking tonight, clashing intensifying in Minneapolis as Minnesota sues to keep ICE operations out of the state. The growing escalations days after a woman was shot and killed by ICE, officers smashing car windows, dragging out and arresting a man, tear gas and flash bangs launched at demonstrators as a thousand more ICE officers arrive. Protesters surrounding officers, blaring whistles. Our reporter at the scene as tensions flare.

Llamas tossed to Vespa with more of the same kind of rhetoric that’s framed entirely on the terms of the anti-ICE mob, ignoring the arrests being made and instead only warning of “growing unrest and chaos” with “clouds of tear gas filling the air as protestors clash with federal agents over their enforcement tactics.”

Interestingly, NBC seems to have engaged in some editing of its own like CBS, but their changes for Tuesday’s Today were made not toward fairness but to heavily skew their stories in favor of the anti-ICE mob (click “expand” to see the relevant passages):

VESPA: DHS touting the work of federal law enforcement officers in Minneapolis the last few days, saying they've arrested criminal suspects in the U.S. illegally, including with convictions for sexual assault of a child, rape of a child, homicide, and manslaughter.

(....)

VESPA: While tonight, amid the chaos —

JAMIE SCHWEIZNETTLE [sp?]: Get out of our city

VESPA: — that’s Jamie Schweiznettle [sp?], earlier he showed us how residents opposed to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement track ICE officers, communicating via encrypted chat saying the protests here will go on.

SCHWEIZNETTLE [sp?]: People who live in this neighborhood have been through enough. We don't need tear gas.

Vespa’s Today story (and the set-up prior) was full of invective painting ICE as reckless:

And, on a small-but-important point, Vespa’s piece also failed to put attach party IDs to chyrons for Ellison. How convenient.

To see the relevant transcripts from January 13, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).