NewsNation Host Repeats Stephen Miller’s False Claim That Police ‘Have Been Ordered to Stand Down’ in Minnesota

NewsNation host Leland Vittert uncritically repeated a claim by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who alleged that police in Minnesota “have been ordered to stand down and surrender.”

On Sunday, protesters stormed into a church in St. Paul, Minnesota, to protest a pastor named David Easterwood, who also appears to be an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official in the area.

“David Easterwood, out now!” protesters yelled as they disrupted the service.

Hours later, quote-tweeted a post by Fox News contributor Miranda Devine, who claimed, “Local cops have gone AWOL” in Minnesota.

“Only federal officers are upholding the law,” Miller wrote. “Local and state police have been ordered to stand down and surrender.”

Neither Devine nor Miller offered any evidence.

During Monday’s On Balance on NewsNation, Vittert pointed to the fact that polling shows that Trump is underwater on immigration, positing that the video of Renee Good’s killing by a federal agent may have helped sway public opinion against him on the issue.

“And this is all about video because this video is perhaps the antidote to the video we saw earlier of a woman getting shot,” Vittert said. “Team Trump is banking on these church protest images to shift the focus. It won’t. Team Trump will fight with the media and claim unfair coverage.”

The host then drew a connection between the church protest and the idea that police in Minnesota aren’t enforcing the law.

“Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller says only federal officers are now upholding the law in Minnesota,” Vittert said, as Miller’s tweet appeared on screen. “‘Local and state police,’ he says, ‘have been ordered to stand down and surrender.’ That only means one thing is coming, which is escalation.”

The host then moved to his panel.

On Monday, the St. Paul Police Department told TMZ it is investigating the incident as part of a disorderly conduct probe. Meanwhile, the Minneapolis Police Department said Miller’s claim is untrue.

“The statement is false,” said Sgt. Garrett Parten, a spokesperson for the department, told The Independent.

Demonstrations against ICE and the Trump administration’s heavy-handed tactics in Minnesota have reached a fever pitch in the wake of the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross this month. Top administration officials, including President Donald Trump, responded by blaming and maligning Good in the immediate aftermath of her death.

Watch above via NewsNation.

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