Vance declared the woman killed by an ICE agent was committing ‘classic terrorism,’ but Trump plays the footage and inadvertently reveals the truth

Vice President Vance is strongly defending the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer involved in the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Macklin Good in Minneapolis, going so far as to label the incident “classic terrorism,” as per The Hill. This is a pretty intense charge, especially since a Justice Department investigation is currently underway.

Vance spent a good chunk of time at a White House press briefing defending the officer and pushing back against what he called media demonization. However, the administration simultaneously characterized Macklin Good in the harshest possible terms, describing her as a domestic terrorist from a “lunatic fringe” who intentionally tried to kill a law enforcement official.

“What you see is what you get in this case,” Vance told reporters. “You have a woman who was trying to obstruct a legitimate law enforcement officer. Nobody debates that. You have a woman who aimed her car at a law enforcement officer and pressed on the accelerator. Nobody debates that.”

Even as the administration pushes this strong narrative, President Trump inadvertently complicated it during a recent interview

Vance made it clear that while her death is a tragedy, he believes it’s a “tragedy of her own making and a tragedy of the far left, who has marshaled an entire movement, a lunatic fringe against our law enforcement officers.” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has also doubled down on this belief, insisting that Macklin Good was committing an act of “domestic terrorism.”

Here’s where things get interesting. Reporters told President Trump that the videos of the incident circulating online were unclear, so he had an aide play a video of the shooting on a laptop right there for them to watch. Before showing the footage, President Trump did condemn the woman’s actions, saying “she behaved horribly.”

But after the reporters viewed the surveillance footage, they noted that the angle didn’t seem to show the ICE officer actually being run over. The president’s response seemed to soften a bit after that viewing. “Well,” President Trump said. “I — the way I look at it.” It sounds like even the administration’s own evidence might not fully support the claim that the officer was physically struck by the vehicle.

I’m skeptical that the country will truly buy the “domestic terrorism” label, and I’m not alone. Mick Mulvaney, who served as President Trump’s chief of staff in his first administration, expressed deep doubt. He pointed out that while the action of hitting the agent with a car might be legally justified for the officer to shoot, and Macklin Good may have been breaking the law, most people probably don’t think the appropriate penalty for that should be death.

The hardline stance from federal officials stands in stark contrast to the reactions coming out of Minnesota. Minneapolis Police Department Chief Brian O’Hara said that the shooting was “entirely predictable.” O’Hara stressed that everyone, regardless of political affiliation, should recognize the loss of life is a tragedy. He hopes the community avoids further destruction, especially since they’ve been through so much trauma over the last five years.