DHS Spox Snaps Back After Jeffries, AOC Warn Against Arresting House Democrats: They ‘Body Slammed’ Federal Agents!
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin snapped back at Democratic lawmakers rushing to the defense of colleagues McLaughlin accused of physically assaulting federal agents.
McLaughlin joined Fox News’ America Reports on Tuesday and pushed back on Democratic lawmakers like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) who defended their colleagues after McLaughlin said she was open to arresting them over an ICE facility protest in Newark, New Jersey.
Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), Rob Menendez (D-NJ), and LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) all attended the protest. McLaughlin claimed that the lawmakers could face consequences, claiming they may have assaulted federal agents. Video released from the protest show some physically hectic moments, but there is no clear public video of what McLaughlin is referring to.
The lawmakers have maintained that had every right to be at the facility, saying they do not need to give notice to conduct oversight tours. McLaughlin said on Tuesday, however, that that’s exactly what they should have done. The Democrats have accused ICE agents of “aggression” and trying to “intimidate” them away from the building.
McLaughlin said:
I’d like to lay out the facts. The fact that it was these three members of Congress who trespassed, broke the law, and stormed that ICE detention facility. They put law-enforcement at risk. They put our detainees at risk and they put our staff at risk. Had they asked for a tour we would facilitated one for them, but there was no notice. And the fact that they put hands — body-slammed, body-rammed, pushed, shoved, whatever you want to call it, it was an assault on ICE agents and it’s unacceptable.
McIver accused ICE agents of “roughing up” the members of Congress.
“From roughing up members of Congress to arresting the mayor of our state’s largest city, there is no version of today that does not show the blatant abuses of power of the Trump administration,” she said in a statement, referring to the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka for trespassing at the protest.
In his own statement about the incident, Jeffries accused the Trump administration of breaking the law with their deportation orders and he warned, “Keep your hands off of Members of Congress.”
Ocasio-Cortez similarly told the administration that if anyone lays a “finger” on the lawmakers, “We are going to have a problem.”
“I would like to ask AOC, who does she want out of that detention facility? Is it the MS-13 members? Is it the known terrorists? Is it the child rapists? Is it the murderers? Who is she fighting for because she’s not not fighting for Americans or American victims,” McLaughlin said in response to the New York congresswoman.
McLaughlin also slammed Baraka’s claim that his arrest was unlawful because he was on public property at the time of his arrest, having already left the facility.
“If there was any civilian who had stormed an ICE detention facility, trespassed, and broke the law, they would be arrest,” she said. “The mayor’s not in any special position just because he’s a public figure.”
Watch above via Fox News.
