Give Democrats a rope, and they think they are cowboys. That is the only way I can think of to describe how they manage to turn every crisis into a political opportunity.
In this case, a woman was interfering with ICE operations in Minnesota and, sadly, wound up dead after an ICE agent fired at her in what is being described by many as an act of self-defense.
Now Democrats are going to try to impeach DHS Secretary Kristi Noem over the incident, completely neglecting to look at why everyone was so fired up and protesting in the first place.
Noem added quite a bit of context to the shooting several hours after it took place.
She labeled the deceased woman's conduct as “domestic terrorism,” announcing that she would be assessing the case through that lens.
Noem stated that the woman at issue had weaponized her car against the agents, justifying their self-defense response.
She also claimed the woman who was shot had been stalking and bothering agents all day long at several other locations, so the events that led to her death were not part of a one-off scenario.
Andrew C. McCarthy, the former chief assistant United States attorney in the Southern District of New York, clearly believes the shooting was justified.
He stated, “[E]ven if the woman was mainly trying to get away (which is what it looks like to me), she was engaged in an actionable assault on a federal officer, a felony under Section 111 of the federal penal code.”
Regarding the agent who fired the shots, he stated, “It is settled Fourth Amendment law that a police officer may use deadly force against a fleeing suspect if he has a good-faith belief that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others.”
There are clearly a lot of questions that still need to be answered, which is why I have avoided jumping to any conclusions. Having said that, I can understand why the agent felt as though his life was being threatened.
Democrats are now grabbing headlines by talking about impeaching Noem, but they don’t have the votes. Nor do they have the votes to defund ICE, but they are going to try to do both.
Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL) stated, "Certainly everyone in that room, at least on my side, is livid at what happened to this woman. Not just a resident of Minnesota, a U.S. citizen... a 37-year-old White woman, was shot, and then they lied about it."
She seemed to leave out a few key facts, such as the woman driving the car toward the agent, not to mention the fact that she was interfering with a law enforcement operation. Those are pretty important details.
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) added, "Secretary Kristi Noem is an incompetent leader, a disgrace to our democracy, and I am impeaching her for obstruction of justice, violation of public trust, and self-dealing.” That is a bit of a reach, also, as Noem is doing nothing more than just enforcing existing immigration laws. It is not her fault if citizens riled up by political rhetoric impede these operations and put the lives of our ICE agents at risk. This effort will fail on all fronts.
