Vice President JD Vance conceded Thursday that federal law enforcement officers have not been perfect in their handling of immigration enforcement in Minneapolis. But in his visit to the city, Vance's main message was that the best way to reduce clashes around ICE operations would be for Democrats to just cooperate with the Trump administration's agenda.
"Look, I don't need Tim Walz or Jacob Frey or anybody else to come out and say that they agree with JD Vance or Donald Trump on immigration," Vance said, referring to the Democratic governor and mayor of Minneapolis. "I just don't need that. What I do need them to do is empower their local officials to help our federal officials out in a way where this can be a little bit less chaotic and it can be a little bit more targeted."
Vance spoke to the media after a roundtable discussion in Minneapolis with business leaders and law enforcement officials.
Tensions peaked this month after a federal officer fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, 37, during a confrontation on Jan. 7. President Donald Trump, Vance and other administration officials have, without offering conclusive evidence, said Good was connected to left-wing protesters and a threat to officers as they approached her car and she began to drive.
Earlier Thursday, at an event in Toledo, Ohio, Vance also reiterated his message that the Trump administration needs more cooperation from Democrats in Minnesota if people want fewer confrontations. Responding to a question from NBC News, Vance agreed with recent comments by Trump that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers will "make some mistakes sometimes."
“My thought on that is, well, of course there have been mistakes made, because you’re always going to have mistakes made in law enforcement,” said Vance, adding that “99% of our police officers, probably more than that, are doing everything right.”
He also used coarse language to reinforce Trump’s position that Democrats there are impeding ICE operations and have created an environment that breeds unruly protests.
“If you disagree ... fine, make that argument,” Vance said in response to a question from a reporter. “But make that argument at the ballot box. Write an op-ed in the newspaper; argue about it on social media. Don’t go to the streets and start assaulting federal law enforcement officers because you disagree with the policies of our administration. It’s cowardly bulls---, and it’s got to stop.”
Speaking in Minneapolis in the afternoon, Vance similarly acknowledged there are "occasionally videos out there that suggest that these guys, or at least some of the people who work for them, are not doing everything right."
He added however, that he sympathized with the federal officers who "are under an incredible amount of stress" and facing harassment because of "a very few far-left agitators."
"Protest me. Protest our immigration policy, but do it peacefully," he said. "If you assault a law enforcement officer, the Trump administration and the Department of Justice is going to prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law."
After he told reporters this month that Jonathan Ross, the ICE officer who fatally shot Good, was protected by “absolute immunity,” Vance said Thursday that he “didn’t say, and I don’t think any other official within the Trump administration said, that officers who engaged in wrongdoing would enjoy immunity.”
“That’s absurd,” Vance said. “What I did say is that when federal law enforcement officers violate the law, that is typically something that federal officials would look into. ... Of course we’re investigating the Renee Good shooting, but we’re investigating them in a way that respects people’s rights and then ensures that if somebody did something wrong, yes, they’re going to face disciplinary action, but we’re not going to judge them in the court of public opinion.”
Vance added that he believes the best way to "lower the temperature" in Minneapolis "would be for state and local officials to cooperate" with the administration. Vance said he had not spoken with Walz on his trip to Minneapolis.
"I believe our chief of staff spoke to the governor and has been in constant contact with his staff," Vance said. "Over the past week, we’ve been, in my office, in constant contact with people here on the ground in Minneapolis. There were certainly people at a roundtable with opposing views. ... If Gov. Walz wants to call me, we’ll absolutely continue talking."
Democrats have disputed the administration’s assertions about its broader immigration operation and about the ICE encounter with Good. They also have found themselves pulled into a federal investigation into whether state officials conspired to impede law enforcement in the administration’s immigration operations. The Justice Department recently sent subpoenas to the offices of Walz, Frey and other state leaders, according to a document reviewed by NBC News and a person familiar with the investigation.
Both Walz and Frey have called for residents to refrain from violence in protesting the federal immigration enforcement efforts.
“It sounds like JD Vance is taking a whole lot of my talking points, but not all of them,” Frey said during a Thursday press conference following Vance’s remarks. “He said ‘Come out and protest, but do it peacefully.’ That sounds like exactly what I’ve been saying since the very first moments following the shooting of Renee Good.”
