Kristi Noem blames 'violent protesters, chaos' for Renee Good, Alex Pretti shootings

Kristi Noem hearing: 'Is it so hard to say you were wrong?' Durbin asks

Sen. Dick Durbin during a Senate hearing with Kristi Noem asked her if it's "so hard to say you were wrong" when Noem called Renee Good and Alex Pretti "domestic terrorists" soon after they were fatally shot by federal officials in Minneapolis. He also asked, "How did you think that calling them domestic terrorists at the scene was somehow going to calm the situation?"

(FOX 9) - Department of Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem is testifying on Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, her first hearing since Operation Metro Surge began its wind down in the Twin Cities.

Noem stood by her comments after the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in south Minneapolis, when she called them both "domestic terrorists."

Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent on Jan. 7 during an immigration operation near 34th and Portland. She was told by federal authorities to get out of her car, and instead, tried to flee the scene. An ICE agent claiming he feared for his life shot her several times.

Pretti was fatally shot on Jan. 24 after a struggle with Border Patrol agents while filming an ongoing immigration enforcement. He was attempting to help a woman who had fallen after being shoved to the ground by agents, and was shot multiple times during a struggle. Federal authorities recovered a weapon from the back of Pretti's waist.

The shooting deaths sparked several days of anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis.

‘Is it so hard to say you were wrong?’

What they're saying:

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin questioned Noem’s comments, saying they caused immeasurable pain to both the Good and Pretti families. He gave Noem a chance to retract calling them "domestic terrorists," and she did not.

"When we have these situations happen, we always offer our condolences to those families, and I offer mine as well. These are tragic situations, and I can't imagine what these families go through in losing a loved one," Noem said. "What I will say is we always work to provide the American people with as much information as possible, that we're relying on reports from the ground and from agents that are there and working to be transparent, and will continue to do all that we can to provide the accurate information and the facts to people as we can."

Durbin then questioned Noem on where she got information that Pretti was a "domestic terrorist."

"I was getting reports from the ground from agents at the scene, and I would say that it was a chaotic scene, as you've seen in Minneapolis and St. Paul, as immigration enforcement has gone forward, and we've worked at targeting the worst of the worst that many times our agents have been faced with violent protesters."

Durbin responds, "Victims, profiling domestic terrorists as a way to calm the scene?"

"These violent terrorists have put them in a situation where they've been. It's unprecedented what these agents have faced. So that situation on the ground that day was chaotic, and it was something that they were transpiring sharing information," Noem said.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar also questioned Noem for calling Good and Pretti domestic terrorists "without any evidence." 

Noem denied the allegation, "Sir, ma'am, I did not call him a domestic terrorist. I said it appeared to be an incident of."

Klobuchar criticized Noem for the deaths of Pretti and Good, saying, "So your agents, not only their actions resulted in the deaths of two innocent American citizens, but they repeatedly violated my constituents' First Amendment rights to assemble. You say you believe in the Second Amendment right to bear arms, but Alex Pretti was criticized repeatedly by officials in the Administration for having a lawful permit to carry and having a gun, your agents violated the Fourth Amendment rights of my constituents by ramming through doors of innocent people's homes, innocent citizens' home, without any kind of a warrant, and violated the Fifth Amendment right to due process. So, as I've shared with my colleagues, if you believe in federalism, in freedom, and in liberty, you should be horrified by what the Department of Homeland Security did in Minnesota."

Noem says 650 agents remain in Minnesota

Klobuchar questions Noem: 650 federal agents still in MN

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) questioned DHS Secretary Kristi Noem during a Senate hearing, saying Renee Good and Alex Pretti should be alive today. Klobuchar said federal agents denied Minnesotans their First Amendment rights, among other rights, and asked Noem when federal authorities would get back down to their original footprint.

What we know:

Operation Metro Surge brought around 3,000 federal agents to Minnesota for immigration enforcement operations. Border Czar Tom Homan announced on Feb. 12 that the immigration operation was coming to an end, and that agents would soon be leaving Minnesota.

Noem said Tuesday about 650 federal agents remain in the state. A majority of them are working to uncover ongoing fraud in Minnesota, mainly Medicaid fraud.

Klobuchar responded to Noem's statement about the fraud investigations, saying, "Was five-year-old Liam involved in that fraud? As you know, I am all in on prosecuting fraud. I put in place the U.S. Attorney who exposed the fraud under the Biden administration and brought the bulk of the prosecutions, and also recommended to Mr. Blanche that Joe Thompson be the acting U.S. Attorney who led those prosecutions, and now has left the office because the Department of Justice asked him and many others to investigate Renee Good's wife instead of doing their jobs doing fraud. So what I want to know is, when are you going to get down to the original footprint as promised to us?"

Noem responded, "We're continuing to work at that, although those investigators will continue to stay there to get to the bottom of that fraud, to make sure that those vulnerable people that rely on those programs actually get services from those federal dollars that are spent, that it's not stolen by criminals and used by individuals to enrich themselves."