Leaked ICE shooting clip touted by JD Vance debunks admin's 'Orwellian' tale: conservative
JD Vance promoted a leaked video as evidence that the ICE agent who shot and killed a mom in Minnesota was in the right, but that clip actually works against the administration's story, according to a conservative analyst Saturday.
There was widespread division after a video showed a masked ICE agent shooting the woman, who was an American citizen, in the face. A later leaked clip showed a separate angle of the interaction, and reveals words exchanged between the ICE agent and the woman.
That's the clip on which Vance seized.
"Watch this, as hard as it is," Vance wrote on X. "Many of you have been told this law enforcement officer wasn't hit by a car, wasn't being harassed, and murdered an innocent woman. The reality is that his life was endangered and he fired in self defense."
But according to conservative analyst Charlie Sykes, the video helps the story against the agent.
"The most remarkable thing about the latest Trumpist spin is that they think a new video strengthens their case, and makes the murder of Renee Nicole Good more justifiable," Sykes wrote on Substack. "The latest video shows the incident from the point-of-view of ICE officer Jonathan Ross who was recording the encounter on his phone before he drew his gun and shot the 37-year-old woman."
Sykes goes on to say of Vance's take, "This is not merely bulls---."
"It is Orwellian ignore-the-evidence-of-your-eyes bulls---," the commentator added. "It follows a familiar and predictable pattern."
He further asks, "But what does the new video actually show?"
"Not at all what the defenders seem to think," the conservative analyst added.
"The woman in the video is not a screaming radical extremist bent on killing an ICE agent," he notes. "The very last words she spoke, were conciliatory, not threatening. 'That’s fine dude, I’m not mad at you.'"