The deadly ICE shooting in Minneapolis ignited a heated exchange in Washington between two Minnesota lawmakers.
Democratic Rep. Angie Craig and Republican Majority Whip Tom Emmer got into a testy back-and-forth, lasting about 40 seconds on Wednesday.
A C-SPAN live stream captured the moment during a break on the House floor. It shows Craig getting face-to-face with Emmer, starting an animated argument.
She told WCCO she wanted to address what she viewed as Emmer’s lack of standing up for Minnesotans, after he made several posts Wednesday on Facebook defending ICE’s actions in the state, including the deadly shooting.
“I’m not going to let my Republican colleagues get away with just ignoring the fact that someone, Renee Good, a woman in Minnesota, was killed yesterday because of these political stunts,” she said.
Good was shot and killed amid a surge of federal agents in the Twin Cities area as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing crackdown on immigration and a fraud scandal in Minnesota.
Things got so heated between the two House members that someone eventually stepped between Craig and Emmer. Then, fellow Democratic Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum pulled Craig back to separate them.
In an interview with WCCO, Craig said that her emotions during their exchange were fueled by what she saw in the videos of the ICE shooting.
When asked how Emmer responded to her, Craig said, “Well, Tom didn’t let me get three words out before he went from zero to 60 mph. So, look, if you can’t have a conversation with someone without it escalating in the first three words, then you’re not really ready to have a conversation and you’re not listening. And I think that’s part of my frustration, is, I want my Republican colleagues to understand and hear me and hear us as Minnesotans that having ICE on the ground in Minnesota is simply not making Minnesota any safer. In fact, it’s having the opposite effect.”
WCCO reached out to Emmer’s team over the phone and through email, offering an interview to share his side of the story, but has not heard back.
Craig and several other local Democrats, like Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, are demanding ICE leave Minnesota.
When asked what power Congress has to get ICE to leave, Craig said, “Everything is on the table at what Congress might be able to do, including and up to impeaching [Department of Homeland Security] Secretary [Kristi] Noem. This woman is out of control. She’s not there to make our communities any safer.”