The occasions that led to a federal officer in Minneapolis killing Renee Nicole Good haven’t been universally interpreted. On a go to to Texas on Wednesday, Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem described the incident as an “act of home terrorism.” She stated Good was attacking ICE officers and that she “tried to run them over and rammed them along with her automobile.”
“Our officer adopted his coaching, did precisely what he’s been taught to do in that state of affairs,” Noem stated later within the day at a press convention in Minneapolis.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey known as that “bullshit” and “rubbish.” He demanded that ICE “get the fuck out of Minneapolis.”
“We don’t need you right here,” he stated. “Your said motive for being right here on this metropolis is to create some sort of security, and you might be doing precisely the other.”
And when Frey was questioned about his remarks by CNN host Kaitlan Collins, saying some had known as his remarks “divisive,” he stated this: “I’m so sorry if I offended their Disney Princess ears. However right here’s the factor. If we’re speaking about what’s inflammatory, on the one hand, you bought somebody dropping the f-bomb. Alternatively, you bought somebody who killed any individual else.”
So how did all of this get began? And the way is all of it going now? Right now, Defined co-host Noel King wished an on-the-ground perspective, and Max Nesterak, a reporter and editor for Minnesota Reformer, instructed her that Minnesotans are drained and stuffed with ache.
Beneath is an excerpt of their dialog, edited for size and readability. There’s far more within the full podcast, so take heed to Right now, Defined wherever you get podcasts, together with Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify.
Over the previous couple of weeks, a fraud scandal in Minnesota has consumed the American proper. That scandal led to the federal government deploying a bunch of ICE brokers to Minneapolis. Yesterday, a kind of officers shot and killed a girl. What will we find out about that taking pictures?
So yesterday morning, round 10 am, ICE officers fatally shot a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident named Renee Nicole Good. I spoke with witnesses and acquired a video of the incident.
What we see and what the witness I talked to stated [is that] she was out for a stroll and noticed an ICE automobile caught within the snow. After which extra ICE automobiles arrived, and bystanders have been blowing their whistles and protesting to get individuals’s consideration as a part of these patrols, “ICE watch,” that folks all through the Twin Cities are doing to doc the arrests.
Then we see Good in her Honda Pilot parked perpendicular in the midst of the road. And an ICE agent — she waves one by, then one other ICE agent pulls up, will get out of his automobile, and yells at her to get out of the automobile. We see her again up after which pull ahead. And that’s when an officer, who’s close to the entrance of the automobile, fires three photographs, fatally killing her.
Although the video of this encounter is on the market from a number of angles, individuals don’t agree on what they’re seeing. President Donald Trump yesterday spoke first. What did he say occurred?
He echoed what we heard at a information convention yesterday [in which] Kristi Noem accused Goode of stalking and impeding ICE operations. That’s utterly completely different than what many individuals see within the video. And what we’re listening to from Democratic leaders [is completely different]. US Rep. Ilhan Omar, who represents Minneapolis, accused ICE of terrorizing their neighborhoods. She known as [ICE’s] actions reckless and callous, and [said] that ICE must be held accountable.
And your mayor, Jacob Frey, what has he needed to say?
Properly, he gave a really impassioned information convention, saying very bluntly for ICE to get out of Minneapolis. And that’s one thing that has been repeated by the governor and members of Minnesota’s congressional delegation: that they don’t need ICE conducting this enhanced enforcement operation in Minnesota.
A number of weeks in the past, DHS started ramping up immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota. And on Sunday, we acquired reviews that about 2,000 extra officers and brokers have been coming to the state in what DHS is looking its largest operation ever.
So this has actually created a standoff between Democratic leaders who say they aren’t getting any coordination or communication from the Trump administration and federal businesses who’re finishing up these operations.
As all of that is occurring within the streets, Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, introduced this week that he’s not going to run for reelection. That announcement was tied to the scandal that I discussed. Are you able to clarify what occurred right here?
This goes again a variety of years with the prosecution of individuals for stealing funds meant to feed hungry kids in the course of the pandemic. The story has reached the nationwide information and the Oval Workplace simply in current weeks, but it surely actually started in 2022, when US Lawyer Andy Luger, a Biden appointee, charged almost 50 individuals with stealing $250 million from this pandemic-era program.
This has been often called the Feeding Our Future scandal after one of many nonprofits on the heart of it; it now consists of greater than 90 indictments throughout a number of social service applications. So the fraud is not contained simply to this meals program, however to different applications geared toward serving essentially the most weak Minnesotans.
And there’s a crucial element right here, which is that a majority of the individuals charged and convicted are of Somali descent.
That’s proper. Now we’re seeing the Trump administration use that to justify vicious assaults on the whole Somali American inhabitants in Minnesota of roughly 91,000, most of whom are Americans.
If native media have been on this story since 2022, why did it boil over in late 2025?
So Christopher Rufo, a conservative journalist, writes a chunk in Metropolis Journal with this bombshell quote from a confidential supply that the biggest funder of Al-Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer. Al-Shabaab is a US-designated terrorist group that runs components of Somalia. Days later, President Trump calls Somali immigrants “rubbish” and unleashes a torrent of different assaults on Somalis, and attracts nationwide consideration to Minnesota.
I ought to notice that prosecutors have stated that greed has been the motivating issue for these fraudsters, not ideology. Prosecutors say they don’t have proof of individuals deliberately funding terrorist teams. That stated, Al-Shabaab controls components of Somalia. So if individuals ship cash house, that cash — seemingly, a few of it results in the arms of Al-Shabaab, as a result of they cost taxes, or relatively, extort individuals.
So Chris Rufo, who’s an activist journalist, went out on a limb with the funding terrorism declare. Nevertheless, in his article, he factors out that there was huge fraud and that native officers — most of whom, as I perceive it, have been Democrats — didn’t root it out. This occurred on their watch.
Yeah, that’s proper. , Democrats have at all times condemned the fraud, and Gov. Tim Walz has stated they take robust motion in opposition to individuals accused, and [that] these individuals go to jail. However I’ve to say, the sheer scope of [the fraud] is de facto an indictment of the Walz administration’s means to steward public assets. And I believe it’s underscored that each one of those social service applications have actually been run on the assumption that everybody is sincere. I believe that goes again to a practice right here in Minnesota of a Scandinavian-style, excessive tax, excessive companies authorities that’s trusting and doesn’t have the checks in place to forestall abuse.
How will we get from Chris Rufo’s exposé — which included some truths in addition to some unproven stuff — to Tim Walz resigning?
Stress has been mounting for months. The Home Republicans created a committee, a fraud oversight committee. It turned clear that Republicans have been going to run on this difficulty. This was going to be their signature difficulty in attempting to win again the governorship in 2026. The New York Occasions publishes an enormous piece in November that makes it even more durable to disregard. After which it will get the eye of a younger unbiased YouTuber named Nick Shirley, who posts a 40-minute video on December 26, displaying himself going round to Somali-run daycares and demanding to see kids, and never seeing any. He claims to uncover greater than $100 million in fraud.
I ought to notice: It’s possibly not so uncommon {that a} random individual with a video digicam who calls for to see kids in a daycare doesn’t see any. I do know at my youngster’s daycare, they’ve a passcode to get in. I’d anticipate that my daycare heart wouldn’t let in any random YouTuber off the road.
Within the wake of this, reporters have been crawling throughout Minnesota attempting to fact-check Nick Shirley. Was any of what he reported correct?
I believe we’re nonetheless attempting to determine that out. There’s positively issues together with his reporting, not simply the ways, however the truth is that one [daycare] that he visited has been closed since 2022, in response to state officers. State officers additionally visited and located 9 working usually with kids. Nonetheless, 4 of them are the topic of an ongoing investigation by the Division of Kids, Youth, and Households, in response to the Star Tribune. Reporters on the Star Tribune additionally visited these 10 services [that Shirley visited] and have been capable of go inside 4 the place they discovered kids.
I also needs to notice that native reporters have additionally made the connection that a few of these daycare facilities have been additionally meal websites for Feeding Our Future, which was tied to that big fraud. However, it’s vital to notice, the house owners haven’t been charged in that case.
So right here we sit on Thursday morning, and you could have seen some darkish jokes circulating on-line about how every little thing occurs in Minnesota: You guys had George Floyd’s homicide in the summertime of 2020. Tim Walz’s ups and downs. You had a Democratic lawmaker murdered in her house final summer time. And now, once more, you will have the Twin Cities actually on edge. How are individuals there doing?
I believe all of us listed here are uninterested in feeling like every little thing occurs in Minnesota.
I used to be on the vigil for Renee Good yesterday, and the environment was simply anguish at her killing, and definitely resolve: Folks saying, “We’ve to proceed turning out to face up for our neighbors.” So there’s a way of defiance, but additionally simply unhappiness. We’re all uninterested in Minnesota being the focus, but it surely doesn’t appear to be it’s going to let up. The DHS says it’s working the biggest operation ever within the state proper now. Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem stated yesterday that ICE operations didn’t cease after the killing, that they may proceed as deliberate. So there’s a way on each side that there’s a combat available right here. I believe persons are digging in for a continued standoff between the state and federal authorities.
