Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

CNN Host, Trump Admin Spokeswoman Come To Blows Over ICE Media Coverage

Screenshot/Rumble/CNN

CNN host Pamela Brown pushed back after Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin accused the media of stoking fear about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

CNN aired video footage of an ICE agent asking a woman to present her identification on “The Situation Room.” Brown asked McLaughlin for her response to people who were “concerned” by the video and others, who supposedly feared “Minnesota is turning into a police state,” where ICE agents ask Americans for identification.

WATCH:

“I think that there’s a lot of fearmongering going on, I think, by the media,” McLaughlin said, leading Brown to interrupt her with a supposed fact-check.

“Hold on, let me just correct you right there,” the CNN host said. “Let me just — they’re watching these videos and using their independence of mind. It’s not ‘the media.'”

McLaughlin rejected that characterization and cited Brown’s own language as an example.

“No, actually it is the media. And we’re seeing it time and time again by saying things like ‘the police state.’ What we’re seeing is rampant violence against our law enforcement, highly coordinated,” McLaughlin said. “We have our legal authorities. When individuals see videos like that, you have to ask the question: Was this individual obstructing law enforcement, which is a federal crime? Were they assaulting law enforcement, which is a felony.”

“Were any of those instances occurring before this video was cut? Because you saw a very short cut,” she continued. “And that’s why I’m talking about the media. There is not a lot of context that’s being out there. And we have to be very responsible.”

Brown interrupted McLaughlin again.

“Well, then why don’t you allow ICE officers to wear the cameras then?” she asked.

McLaughlin asserted the premise of Brown’s question was wrong and that ICE agents were allowed to wear cameras and frequently do. She also said the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was working to equip all ICE agents with body cameras through President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill.”

Moreover, McLaughlin noted that the ICE agent who shot Renee Good on Jan. 7 filmed the incident. The video showed Good’s vehicle was blocking a roadway and that her wife was filming the agent with her phone and repeatedly confronting him in the lead-up to the shooting.

Brown then pointed to a Wednesday CNN poll conducted by SSRS from Jan. 9 to Monday, which found that 51% of respondents said ICE makes cities “less safe,” while only 31% said it makes cities safer. The poll also found that 56% of respondents perceived the Good shooting as “an inappropriate use of force,” while only 26% felt it was “appropriate.”

“So are you willing to consider, in some cases, ICE has gone too far and is losing American support?” Brown asked.

“Pamela, in the last five weeks, we have arrested 2,500 criminal illegal aliens off of the streets of Minneapolis … The point of the matter is I have not seen CNN cover who some of those individuals are,” McLaughlin said. “An individual from Ecuador, he murdered his three-month-old son. An individual who is perpetuating human slavery and human trafficking. Scores and scores of murders. Child pedophiles. Why does the media not talk about that?”

Brown did not dispute McLaughlin’s claim that CNN failed to cover the arrests. A Saturday ICE press release outlined arrests of illegal migrant child rapists and killers in Minnesota amid the agency’s enforcement surge in the state.