Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Trisha McLaughlin ducked out of responding to a top MAGA podcaster comparing the fatal shooting of a Minnesota mom by an ICE agent to repressions in Nazi Germany.
Speaking on his show Tuesday, Joe Rogan said he could “see both perspectives” on the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by Jonathan Moss last Wednesday.
He added that Americans still “don’t want militarized people in the streets just roaming around, snatching up people—many of which turn out to be U.S. citizens that just don’t have their papers on them.”
“Are we really gonna be the Gestapo?” Rogan said. “‘Where’s your papers?’ Is that what we’ve come to?”
Asked about Rogan’s comments during a Fox News appearance Wednesday, McLaughlin spoke for at least 30 seconds without once addressing the podcaster’s shocking comparison.
“This answer is actually very straightforward—if [Minnesota Governor] Tim Walz and [Minneapolis] Mayor [Jacob] Frey would let us in their jails, we wouldn’t have to be there at all,” she said.
McLaughlin went on: “Currently there are 680 criminal illegal aliens, data that includes murderers, that includes rapists, that includes child pedophiles, people who, whether you’re a Republican or Democrat you would never want these people to be on your streets, or your neighbors, that’s the people who we are targeting and we are trying to get out of Minneapolis because we don’t have state and local law enforcement’s help, we do have to have a physical presence on the ground there, and I know in the interview as well, and what Joe Rogan just mentioned as the rampant crime we’ve found, more than nine billion dollars, and we believe that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
The Homeland Security spokesperson did not—after concluding her grammar-bending response—circle back to explain what exactly she meant by “child pedophiles.”
Her comments come after latest polling suggests that in the aftermath of Good’s killing, the majority of Americans would like to see ICE, a division of DHS, abolished altogether—a dramatic turn-around in public perception.
McLaughlin’s boss, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, now faces a gathering impeachment push from Democrats in the House, as well as calls from pundits to resign over the killing.
Noem, Trump, and JD Vance all attacked Good after her death, with Noem calling her a “domestic terrorist.” The Justice Department has also joined the pile-on, first refusing to cooperate with the Minnesota state investigation into the killing, then declining to investigate whether Good’s death was a civil rights violation, while investigating her background and that of her wife who witnessed her death.
The Daily Beast has reached out to DHS for comment on this story.
