Rep. Baumgartner weighs in on ICE shooting of Renee Good in Minnesota; calls for review of potential fraud in Washington
WASHINGTON – In remarks to reporters on Wednesday, Rep. Michael Baumgartner called the Jan. 7 killing of a Minnesota woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent “a tragedy” but said the shooting appeared to be justified.
The Spokane Republican’s comments came after he asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services – two agencies responsible for food assistance and other federally funded, state-administered benefit programs – to look into potential fraud in those programs in Washington state.
During the Biden administration in 2022, federal prosecutors in Minnesota charged dozens of people – most of Somali descent – in a massive fraud scheme that President Donald Trump cited in December when he ordered what the Department of Homeland Security claims is the largest immigration enforcement operation in U.S. history. Renee Good, a 37-year-old woman who was acting as a legal observer in Minneapolis, according to city officials, was shot and killed by a masked ICE agent as she tried to drive away from the scene of a confrontation between agents and protesters.
Citing a grainy video recorded from far away, Trump and members of his administration – including Vice President JD Vance and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem – immediately claimed Good had run over the agent who killed her, Jonathan Ross, injuring him in what they called an act of “domestic terrorism.” Soon after, the New York Times and other news outlets published clearer videos from multiple angles that contradict that account, showing that her vehicle appeared to be turning away from Ross as he shot the mother of three, once through the windshield and twice through the side window.
On Wednesday, Baumgartner criticized Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson for a Jan. 8 post on X in which the Washington Democrat wrote, “Now ICE is killing moms in the street? The escalating violence from the Trump Administration against immigrants and protestors is absolutely outrageous.”
“That is highly irresponsible and it fosters the kind of division and paranoia amongst the public that’s very dangerous,” Baumgartner said of the governor’s post. “I was really disappointed that so many public elected officials, like Gov. Bob Ferguson, rushed to make irresponsible statements.”
Asked if he agreed with Noem labeling Good a domestic terrorist, Baumgartner said he hadn’t seen those remarks and added, “I would like to refrain from making those kinds of comments until there’s an investigation and I know more.”
Trump administration officials didn’t wait for an investigation before labeling Good a terrorist. State and local law enforcement agencies have been excluded from the federal investigation into her death and denied access to evidence, prompting concerns that an investigation conducted solely by the Trump administration won’t be legitimate.
Minneapolis police Chief Brian O’Hara has criticized the conduct of ICE agents in his city, accusing the agent who killed Good of violating “traffic stop 101” by placing himself in front of her vehicle as he circled it, filming her with his phone.
“Obviously, it’s a tragedy whenever anybody gets killed, but from what I’ve seen, it looks like a justified shooting,” Baumgartner said, pointing to two unnamed U.S. officials who told CBS News on Wednesday that Ross suffered internal bleeding as a result of the incident.
In his letter to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, sent the day after Good’s death, Baumgartner said he was “not alleging misconduct by Washington state” but seeking assurance “that Washington’s administration of major federal funds is protected against the same vulnerabilities that have been publicly documented in Minnesota.”
“The federal government is spending a lot of money, and we need to make sure that it’s going to who it’s intended to and there’s minimal amounts of waste, fraud and abuse,” Baumgartner said Wednesday. He pointed to recent comments by former Washington state Auditor Brian Sonntag, a Democrat, who told Seattle’s KOMO News on Jan. 6 that he supports a review of spending by the state’s Department of Child, Youth and Families on child care centers, one of the main sites of the fraud in Minnesota.
“What’s going on in Minnesota has been extremely concerning, and we need to take a look,” the congressman said. “The constituents that I represent are asking me to ask the federal government to take a look, and certainly I want to represent the district in that.”
Asked if it’s appropriate for the Trump administration to target an entire ethnic group in Minnesota because most of the convicted fraudsters are Somali Americans, Baumgartner said authorities should “follow the crimes and the evidence wherever it leads.”
“If there are significant problems amongst significant ethnic groups, we shouldn’t not investigate those groups for the sake of wokeness or DEI,” he said, using an acronym for diversity, equity and inclusion. “I think people need to ask a lot of questions there, and we need to find out the answers. And again, hopefully that will happen in Washington state.”