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During a contentious Senate hearing on Thursday, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) admonished Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) for informing residents of his state that the First Amendment grants them the right to protest against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, baselessly claiming his words led to the killing of two Minneapolis residents.
Johnson offered unsolicited advice to Ellison about what he would have done if he were in Ellison’s position during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing to discuss the unrest in Minnesota.
“I, as a government official, would have said, ‘Back off. Let us work with ICE. Let’s cooperate with them. Let’s see if we can de-escalate this,'” Johnson said, ignoring the many instances of unprovoked violence from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents in the Twin Cities area over the past two and a half months. “Attorney General, you did the exact opposite, and two people are dead because you encouraged them to put themselves in harm’s way.”
Johnson’s comments referred to two Minneapolis residents, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were shot and killed by immigration agents while demonstrating against the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) violent deportation campaign in their city.
Following both killings, the Trump administration baselessly smeared the victims as “domestic terrorists” for protesting in solidarity with members of their community who were being terrorized, abducted, and detained.
Johnson also cast blame on the victims in the days after the killings. Soon after Good’s death, Johnson said it “didn’t have to happen” and implied that she had put her own life at risk by attempting to “ram ICE agents,” a claim that video evidence demonstrates is false. After Pretti’s killing, Johnson again blamed the protest and not the actions of CBP agents. He also faulted Democratic lawmakers, like Ellison, for “the incitement of violence and obstruction against federal law enforcement” that he claimed led to Pretti’s death.
Ellison defended himself against Johnson’s words, and said he was upholding people’s right to protest.
“It’s common for people to use their First Amendment right to protest things they don’t think are right,” Ellison told Johnson.
“Did you ever encourage people to go out there and exercise their First Amendment?” Johnson asked, quieting himself toward the end of the question, perhaps recognizing he didn’t frame it the way he had wanted to.
“Yeah, I do. I freely admit being in favor of the First Amendment,” Ellison responded.
Johnson sought to spin that response, claiming Ellison had encouraged “trained activists to put themselves in harm’s way.”
“You had to know, because you were watching this, that there were scuffles, at least,” Johnson said — neglecting to mention that many of the “scuffles” were incited by immigration agents themselves.
Ellison sought to correct the record, stating:
We, at all times, said, ‘If you want to protest, protest peacefully, protest safely.’ But you’ll never find me being against the First Amendment.
By the end of his time in the hearing, Johnson was visibly angry at Ellison, continuing to blame him and the promotion of the First Amendment right to assembly for Good’s and Pretti’s deaths.
“A tragedy was going to happen. And you encouraged it! And you ought to feel damn guilty about it!” Johnson barked.
Unable to respond because Johnson’s time had ended, Ellison had a slight smile on his face, perhaps due to the absurd notion that encouraging people to utilize their freedoms was somehow a bad thing.
“Sit there and smirk! You’re sick, you’re despicable,” Johnson yelled over a muted microphone.
“Are you asking me for comment, Senator? Because everything you said was untrue,” Ellison quipped. “It was a nice theatrical performance, but it was all lies.”
“You disgust me,” Johnson snarled back.
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