Bill O’Reilly gave a warning to Kristi Noem and the Department of Homeland Security in the wake of Wednesday’s fatal shooting by ICE in Minneapolis.
Speaking with NewsNation’s Leland Vittert on Monday, the 76-year-old conservative pundit said that ICE needs to take things down a notch.
“Does ICE not need to change what it’s doing, but its tactics and how it’s doing it?” the On Balance host asked O’Reilly. “Yes, absolutely,” O’Reilly replied. “ICE needs to de-escalate.”
“If you’re in a position as an ICE agent where you feel deadly force may be necessary,” O’Reilly said, “Then you should pull back and assess where you are. That woman could have been arrested after the fact.”
“She didn’t have to be confronted with a guy cursing at her and screaming at her at that moment. Did not have to,” he continued.
“So, my advice to Kristi Noem and homeland security in general would be if it gets to a point where violence might break out, you have to de-escalate it. And that is in every single police manual in this country.”
On Wednesday, 37-year-old mother of three Renee Nicole Good was killed on a residential street in Minneapolis after ICE agent Jonathan Ross fired three shots into her vehicle, striking her in the head.
The Trump administration was quick to remark on the situation, with Homeland Security Secretary Noem issuing a statement within hours of the shooting. She designated Good as a “domestic terrorist” who was attempting to ram officers with her vehicle, though multiple eyewitness videos appeared to show that she was trying to drive away.
A video taken by Ross shows Good appearing calm during the encounter, moments before Ross shoots her. Her last audible words are, “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you. I’m not mad at you.”
In the seconds after the shooting, an ICE agent—believed to be Ross—can be heard saying “F--king b--ch.”
Protests against ICE erupted across the country in response to the killing, as Democratic lawmakers and state officials in Minnesota have demanded justice for the killing.
Other Trump administration goons have largely supported Noem’s judgment of the shooting, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt calling Good a “deranged lunatic” and Vice President JD Vance claiming that Ross has “absolute immunity” as an ICE agent.
President Donald Trump, 79, also called Good a “very violent... very radical person” when speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday.
O’Reilly’s suggestion for ICE to “de-escalate” is not the first time the conservative journalist has offered criticism of a Trump White House.
Once a Fox News figurehead during the 2000s and early 2010s, O’Reilly also called out the Trump administration over its failure to address affordability—an issue Trump has attacked as a “Democratic con job,” despite his 2024 campaign promise to “end inflation and make America affordable again.”
“There’s no doubt about it,” O’Reilly said in November on his web show, No Spin News. “President Trump and his administration, if they want to hold the House and Senate next November, they gotta get the prices down—of insurance, healthcare, car, house, and food.”
