White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had a fiery clash with a journalist during Thursday's press briefing, labeling him a "left-wing activist" over an exchange the two of them had over Renee Good. Niall Stanage, The Hill's White House columnist, began his question by pointing to the Trump administration's staunch defense of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), citing stats showing "32 people died in ICE custody" and "170 U.S. citizens were detained by ICE." He also noting last week's killing of Good, who was shot in what agents said was self-defense because she was using her car as a weapon.
00:00On one of my colleagues who asked you about the president's interview with
00:03lawyers, you said that he was joking about canceling the elections, but
00:09Americans for generations have fought and died for democracy, for this democracy.
00:15Are you saying that the president finds the idea of canceling elections funny?
00:19Andrew, were you in the room? No, you weren't. I was in the room. I heard the
00:23conversation and only someone like you would take that so seriously and pose
00:27it a question in that way. Thanks, Caroline. Earlier, you were just
00:31defending ICE agents generally. And earlier on, Secretary Noon spoke to the media and she said,
00:38among other things, that they are doing everything correctly.
00:41Thirty-two people died in ICE custody last year. One hundred and seventy U.S. citizens were
00:47detained by ICE. And Renee Goode was shot in the head and killed by an ICE agent. How does
00:53that equate to them doing everything correctly?
00:55Why was Renee Goode unfortunately and tragically killed?
00:59Are you asking me my opinion? Because an ICE agent acted recklessly and killed it unjustified.
01:04Oh, okay. So you're a biased reporter with a left-wing opinion.
01:07What do you want me to do?
01:08Yeah, because you're a left-wing hack. You're not a reporter. You're posing in this room as
01:12a journalist. And it's so clear by the premise of your question. And you and the people in the
01:17media who have such biases but fake, like you're a journalist, you shouldn't even be sitting in that seat.
01:22But you're pretending like you're a journalist, but you're a left-wing activist.
01:26Two questions. First, a follow-up on one of my colleagues who asked you about the President's
01:31interview with lawyers. You said that he was joking about canceling the elections. But Americans for
01:39generations have fought and died for democracy, for this democracy. Are you saying that the President
01:45finds the idea of canceling elections funny?
01:48Andrew, were you in the room? No, you weren't. I was in the room. I heard the conversation.
01:52And only someone like you would take that so seriously and pose it at a question in that
01:56way.
01:57Thanks, Caroline. Earlier, you were just defending ICE agents generally. And earlier on, Secretary
02:03Noon spoke to the media. And she said, among other things, that they are doing everything
02:08correctly. Thirty-two people died in ICE custody last year. One hundred and seventy U.S. citizens
02:15were detained by ICE. And Renee Goode was shot in the head and killed by an ICE agent. How
02:21does that equate to them doing everything correctly?
02:24Why was Renee Goode unfortunately and tragically killed?
02:27Are you asking me my opinion? Because an ICE agent acted recklessly and killed it unjustifiably.
02:32Oh, okay. So you're a biased reporter with a left-wing opinion.
02:36What do you want me to do?
02:37Yeah, because you're a left-wing hack. You're not a reporter. You're posing in this room as
02:41a journalist. And it's so clear by the premise of your question. And you and the people in
02:46the media who have such biases but fake, like you're a journalist, you shouldn't even be
02:50sitting in that seat. But you're pretending like you're a journalist but you're a left-wing
02:54activist. And the question that you just raised and your answer proves your bias. You should
02:59read reporting on the facts. You should read reporting on the cases. Do you have the numbers
03:03of how many American citizens were killed at the hands of illegal aliens who ICE is trying
03:07to remove from this country? I bet you don't. I bet you didn't even read up on those stories.
03:11I bet you never even read about Lake and Riley or Jocelyn Nungray or all of the innocent Americans
03:16who were killed at the hands of illegal aliens in this country. And the brave men and women of ICE
03:20are doing everything in their power to remove those heinous individuals and make our communities safer.
03:26And shame on people like you in the media who have a crooked view and have a biased view
03:33and pretend like you're a real honest journalist.
03:35The Press, Caroline, two quick questions on Iran. I wanted to ask first, just if you can say,
03:41how close was the President to potentially launching strikes last night? And was it the
03:46gold states that convinced him not to do that, as some of the region there have said?
03:50Well, look, Kelly, I know there's been a lot of speculation in the media about what the
03:54President is going to do at any given moment or any given night.
03:57And I would say a lot of these stories, to be honest with you, I've been reading them
04:01and they have been based on anonymous sources who are pretending or guessing to know the
04:05President's thinking. The truth is only President Trump knows what he's going to do.
04:09And a very, very small team of advisers are read into his thinking on that.
04:14And as I just told you, he continues to closely monitor the situation on the ground in Iran.
04:19And as we saw yesterday, he had heard that the killings and executions would stop.
04:24And we have seen 800 people, their lives have been spared as a result of that.
04:28The President continues to closely monitor, but also keep all of his options on the table.
04:34Caroline, two separate questions.
04:35Sure.
04:36On the Machado meeting first, what is it that the President feels that he needs to hear from her
04:41or from the opposition party that he hadn't heard prior to today or he wanted to hear in the meeting
04:47to be able to convince him to commit to some sort of a timeline for elections?
04:52I'm not sure the President is going into such the meeting with expectations like you just laid out, Fran.
04:57I don't think he needs to hear anything from Ms. Machado.
05:00I think generally this is a meeting that the President was willing to take and willing to accept to meet Ms. Machado in person
05:07and to just have a frank and positive discussion about what's taking place in Venezuela.
05:12That's all.
05:13On the subject of Greenland, Jeff Landry, the President's Special Envoy for Greenland,
05:17wasn't in the White House meeting yesterday.
05:19Can you say why that was and what exactly the role he is playing in these conversations about acquiring Greenland?
05:26Well, the Vice President and the Secretary of State were present for that meeting.
05:29And the meeting, it was a productive meeting.
05:32It was a good meeting.
05:33And in that meeting, the two sides agreed to really establish a working group of individuals
05:39who will continue to have technical talks on the acquisition of Greenland.
05:42Those talks will take place, I'm told, every two to three weeks.
05:45So this is a conversation the administration intends to keep having with the Danes
05:50and with the respected delegation from Greenland.
05:53But the President has made his priority quite clear.
05:56He wants the United States to acquire Greenland.
05:58He thinks it's in our best national security to do that.
06:00There have been multiple instances of American citizens being detained by ICE.
06:07And I'm wondering what the administration is asking the agency to do.
06:11What steps is the administration asking the agency to take to ensure that Americans are not wrongly arrested?
06:18Obviously, ICE is focused on detaining individuals who are unlawfully present in the country.
06:25And there have been hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens who have been arrested and detained and deported from this country by ICE over the course of the last year.
06:35And that's their intention.
06:36And that is their goal.
06:37Thank you, Caroline.
06:38One poll about Greenland.
06:39You reportedly sent troops over there.
06:40Does that change at all?
06:41What the President is doing on this?
06:42And then a second question.
06:43Yesterday, in a Senate health hearing, Senator Josh Hawley repeatedly asked a doctor if men can get pregnant, and she did not directly answer that.
06:56What are your thoughts on that?
06:57Well, to your first question on Greenland, I don't think troops in Europe impact the President's decision-making process, nor does it impact his goal of the acquisition of Greenland at all.
07:09To your second question, I mean, anyone in their right mind with common sense who's speaking honestly and candidly will say that men cannot get pregnant.
07:18And I think I can attest to that myself.
07:21Go ahead.
07:22Thanks, Caroline.
07:23Two questions on Minneapolis.
07:24And then you.
07:25Go ahead.
07:26Two questions on Minneapolis, one on the ICE agent and the other on the rioting.
07:29I believe last night there were protesters or rioters that rifled through an FBI car, took weapons.
07:36We had a reporter embedded with ICE who said that she saw a constant harassment all evening.
07:41Can you speak to the rhetoric we're hearing from Democrat politicians, whether they are causing violence against ICE, as well as some of the headlines we've seen, not including the full story?
07:51Yeah, I mean, to your first point, I think I've addressed that, that these Democrat governors and mayors in not just Minnesota, but in states across the country are essentially, you know, they've referred to ICE agents who, again, are brave men and women.
08:04And I would encourage everyone in this room and I would encourage Governor Walz and other Democrats who are demeaning law enforcement to sit down and have a cup of coffee with an ICE agent or a Border Patrol agent.
08:14These are great patriotic men and women who have families who put on the uniform every day and are following our nation's immigration laws at the direction of their bosses.
08:25And again, at the direction of the law, they are simply trying to enforce the law.
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