Congressional Cowards is a weekly series highlighting the worst Donald Trump defenders on Capitol Hill, who refuse to criticize him—no matter how disgraceful or lawless his actions.
In a sick and twisted way, Republicans have proved President Donald Trump right when he said that he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose any votes.
A protester holds a sign that reads, “Her name was Renee Nicole Good,” following the ICE killing of a Minneapolis woman on Jan. 7.
In the wake of a masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shooting and killing an unarmed U.S. citizen during an immigration raid in Minneapolis, GOP lawmakers have all lined up behind Trump and the agent, all while making vile and defamatory statements about the victim.
The most despicable comment came from Rep. Randy Fine of Florida, who said that he feels no remorse for Renee Nicole Good, the 37-year-old mother who was killed on Wednesday while serving as an observer of an ICE operation in her community.
“If you impede the actions of our law enforcement as they seek to repel foreign invaders from our country, you get what's coming to you," Fine said in an appearance on Newsmax. "I do not feel bad for the woman that was involved."
But he was hardly alone in disparaging Good and parroting the Trump administration's lies about the killing.
Trump falsely said that the agent who killed Good was injured and that Good was trying to run him over with her car—even though the incident was captured on video from several angles, showing that the agent was not in danger and was not injured.
A deployed airbag and blood stains are seen in Renee Good’s crashed vehicle after she was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Jan. 7.
Republicans then pushed those same lies, which Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said is a naked attempt to help the agent avoid accountability.
"It appears that the ICE agent was struck by the car, and in the first video you just showed you can see the agent limping away after he fired shots," Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina said on Fox Business. "So I agree with President Trump and Secretary Noem that this was an act of domestic terrorism. These were, it appears, paid agitators."
In a separate and even more disturbing post, Mace wrote of Good "FAFO," short for “fuck around and find out”—suggesting that she thinks Good’s killing was justified.
Most Republicans who commented on the killing said that they stand with ICE, with Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee goes as far as calling ICE agents “heroes.”
"ICE officers are heroes, not villains,” she wrote on X.
Other lawmakers absurdly blamed Democrats for the killing, saying that their criticism of ICE's lawless and violent behavior is what led to this.
People gather for a vigil after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7.
"This clearly appears to be the result of this just months-long rhetoric against law enforcement and people encouraging that kind of violence," House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday.
"I pray that every federal law enforcement officer on the ground in Minnesota right now remains safe as they carry out their vital mission," House Majority Whip Tom Emmer wrote on X "Tim Walz and [Minneapolis Mayor] Jacob Frey are cowards who are inciting violence to distract from their own failures. It's dangerous. Stay safe, @ICEgov."
Of course, ICE has been violent and deserves to be called out, with a New York Times investigation finding that ICE has shot nine people since September, leading to the killing of Good and one other victim.
Related | ICE killed an unarmed citizen. Republicans keep trying to justify it.
But perhaps most disturbing of all is that Republicans seem to truly believe that death is an appropriate consequence for a citizen who, in their mind, disobeys law enforcement directives. It’s also hypocritical, given that many of those same lawmakers said that Ashli Babbitt—who was shot and killed while storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021—was unjustly killed.
"This could have easily been prevented by complying with the officer’s command," Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina wrote on X.. "If an officer lawfully asks you to exit a vehicle but you do not comply and then strike that officer with a vehicle, you may get shot.”
The United States’ descent into fascism is truly horrifying.
