CNN Analyst Argues DHS Statements on Latest Shooting ‘Have No Credibility’ After Renee Good Killing

CNN anchors Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown on Thursday brought on former acting FBI director and senior law enforcement analyst Andrew McCabe to discuss President Donald Trump’s threat to invoke the Insurrection Act as violence continues in Minnesota. McCabe was asked to weigh in on ICE shooting a Venezuelan national in the leg the night before, and argued he couldn’t comment based on the Trump administration’s statements on the incident, claiming they carry no credibility following DHS statements on the shooting of Renee Good. 

“It’s just not good all around, right? And now you have the president threatening this morning to invoke what’s called the Insurrection Act,” began Brown after discussing the latest ICE shooting and anti-ICE protests in Minnesota. She continued:

He said, quote, “If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the patriots of ICE who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the Insurrection Act.”

Let’s remind everyone of what the Insurrection Act is. It allows the president to deploy the U.S. military domestically and use that force against citizens. It can only be employed if there’s an insurrection or interference with state or federal law. So Andy, as a former deputy director of the FBI and acting director, do you see any grounds to legitimize the use of the Insurrection Act here?

“No, absolutely not. I think there are a lot of indicators on the ground that point towards the need for a much better and very different law enforcement response. This is—you know, we have had, unfortunately, violent protests in this country for a number of different reasons, different issues over the last couple of years. And in not one of them has any other president declared to bring in the United States military to take over a city under the Insurrection Act,” McCabe said, adding:

What you have here is a—you know, the government, unlike the response to George Floyd, this is an issue in which the government could very quickly de-escalate the tension and the violence on the ground simply by conducting their business differently, right? By pulling back some of these ICE officers, by bringing a less aggressive tactical approach to this entire issue of finding people who are illegally here in this country. That’s why there’s violence and unrest on the street.

Now, I’m not saying that violence by protesters is ever necessary or justifiable under any circumstances. It is not. But it is the government that’s ratcheting up the tension and the violence here, and they could easily turn that off by simply conducting themselves differently.

“Just really quickly to follow up, I mean, you had the situation with the shooting overnight, and DHS says that a Venezuelan national tried to flee and attacked the ICE officer trying to arrest him. I mean, in that situation, do you think the shooting was justified? In that case, he was shot in the leg, that Venezuelan national,” Brown followed up.

“Well, it’s very hard to say, Pamela, because we know almost nothing about this. And the reason is that the government’s response, their comments in the media following the Renee Good shooting one week ago, have proven to us all that we cannot take their statements for granted. We cannot accept what the government is telling us whole cloth,” McCabe argued, adding:

They have no credibility in terms of the way that they are talking about and characterizing the people involved in these events. They absolutely mischaracterized, deliberately mischaracterized Ms. Good and her partner as terrorists. They are not terrorists. They didn’t commit any act of terrorism. They haven’t been alleged to have committed a crime with an indictment or anything like that. So we know that we can’t trust what the government is saying about what’s happening on the ground. So now you think about what happened last night, and we essentially know nothing at this point, so it’s really hard to evaluate.

Brown wrapped the discussion, noting, “We’re waiting to hear from the Minnesota officials to get some more details because right now we only have the DHS side of things.”

Watch above via CNN.