Ted Cruz has some words of advice for the Trump administration over the ICE shootings in Minneapolis.
The Texas Republican, 55, needled the administration over its reflex of issuing “guns blazing” responses to immigration agents’ fatal shootings of American citizens.
In Minneapolis, where President Donald Trump ordered a hardline immigration crackdown, ICE agents killed 37-year-old mom Renee Good on Jan. 7 and 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Pretti on Jan. 24. In the aftermath of both shootings, administration officials were quick to blast the victims as “domestic terrorists” looking to “massacre law enforcement”—even as they acknowledged that investigations were ongoing.
Those responses haven’t sat well with the administration’s own supporters.
“In the world of politics, we’ve got to realize that we’ve got to confront the bad stories with stories that are compelling. And it’s where tone matters,” Cruz said on a Monday episode of his Verdict podcast.
“What I think the administration could do better is the tone with which they’re describing this, that immediately when an incident like this happens, they come out guns blazing, that ‘We took out a violent terrorist, hooray,’” he went on.
Administration officials accused Good and Pretti of attempting to harm ICE agents, despite multiple video accounts of both incidents proving otherwise. Both individuals were observing ICE operations when they got into scuffles with agents that quickly escalated into fatal shootings.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees ICE, branded Good and Pretti as domestic terrorists shortly after they were shot dead by federal agents.
“Violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and to perpetuate violence. That is the definition of domestic terrorism,” she said of Pretti on Saturday.
Top White House aide Stephen Miller also described Pretti as “a domestic terrorist” who “tried to assassinate federal law enforcement.” Vice President JD Vance said the “engineered chaos” in Minneapolis was “the direct consequence of far left agitators, working with local authorities.” Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino said Pretti “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”
But not even Cruz was convinced.
“The problem is—particularly for someone not paying attention—if you’re being told, ‘This is a mom of three’ and there’s no indication, you know, she’s not waving an ISIS flag or doesn’t have a suicide vest around her, escalating the rhetoric doesn’t help and it actually loses credibility,” he said.
“And so I would encourage the administration to be more measured, to recognize the tragedy, and to say, ‘We don’t want anyone’s lives to be lost’ and the politicians who are pouring gasoline onto this fire, they need to stop.”
The White House did not immediately return a request for comment on Cruz’s remarks. Earlier on Monday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt distanced Trump from comments made by his officials.
Asked whether Trump agreed with officials’ description of Pretti, she said: “I have not heard the president characterize Mr. Pretti in that way. However, I have heard the president say he wants to let the facts and the investigation lead itself.”
