Hours after Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed during an ICE operation in Minneapolis, Kristi Noem stepped in front of microphones with what sounded like sympathy. “Any loss of life is a tragedy,” she began. But that sympathy lasted about ten seconds.
For the next 10 minutes during her Wednesday press conference, Noem performed a full, unflinching prosecution of a dead woman. She made a sweeping attempt to reframe Good’s killing as part of a nationwide terror campaign.
The DHS Secretary first walked reporters through what she called “the facts.” ICE agents, she said, were conducting “lawful operations” when snow caused a vehicle to get stuck. A “mob of agitators” then surrounded them, blocking movement, shouting, and impeding law enforcement.
Noem then claimed that Renee Good had been “stalking and impeding” ICE agents all day. She was ordered repeatedly to exit her vehicle, but she refused. Then, according to Noem, she “weaponized her vehicle” and attempted to run an officer over.
Kristi Noem labeled Renee Good a domestic terrorist
The Secretary concluded that Renee Good did not just behave dangerously, but her actions amounted to domestic terrorism:
“This appears as an attempt to kill or to cause bodily harm to agents, an act of domestic terrorism. The ICE officer, fearing for his life and the other officers around him, and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots. He used his training to save his own life and that of his colleagues.”
Noem did not hesitate to deploy the phrase “domestic terrorism” and used it repeatedly. She first invoked it to describe Good’s actions, then to situate the shooting within what she claimed was a broader, coordinated threat.
She cited four “domestic terrorist attacks” involving vehicles against federal officers in a single day. According to her data, there have been over 100 vehicle rammings in recent weeks. She also claimed a 1300% increase in assaults against ICE and an 8,000% increase in death threats against them.
Republicans know that once you frame something as terrorism, lethal force becomes not just justified, but necessary. And Kristi Noem did exactly that.
Blame game? Now. Body cam footage? Later.
When Kristi Noem was asked whether body camera footage existed to prove her claims, she declined to answer. What she offered instead was reassurance that the officer was experienced:
“The fact of the matter is, he’s an experienced officer. He’s been in situations like this before, and he certainly followed his training today.”
The GOP has been conveniently ignoring that the video directly contradicts their version of events. But in Noem’s telling, there was no gray area. She simply portrayed ICE agents as heroes and Good as a threat.
Kristi Noem claims people are being “trained” against ICE
Noem: "People need to stop using their vehicles as weapons … it's clear that it's being coordinated. People are being trained" pic.twitter.com/idt8QEgWBb
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 7, 2026
The GOP has placed every responsibility neatly and squarely on Good. Kristi Noem also repeatedly asserted that Good weaponized her vehicle. To this, a reporter asked whether ICE might alter how it operates given the risks of vehicles. But she escalated her attack:
“I’m asking the Department of Justice to prosecute it as domestic terrorism because it’s clear that it’s being coordinated. People are being trained and told how to use their vehicles to impede law enforcement operations and then to run over anybody who gets in their way while they try to disrupt peace and public safety.”
In a fitting response to that, one user on X wrote, “People are being trained, but our law enforcement personnel clearly aren’t.” Another added, “She’s not wrong about coordination… just wrong about which side’s doing it.” But these people know exactly what they are doing, and there’s only one explanation: She has no soul.
