Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Rob Schneider Goes Off On Jacob Frey For Fanning Flames After ICE Shooting

Screenshot/YouTube/PBD Podcast

Actor Rob Schneider called Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey a “lunatic” and “disgrace” on the “PBD Podcast” Friday for the mayor’s inflammatory rhetoric after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent fatally shot a woman in his city.

Frey demanded ICE “get the fuck out of Minneapolis” during a Wednesday press conference after the shooting, which occurred during an operation in Minneapolis when the woman accelerated her car forward as agents surrounded her vehicle. Schneider argued on the podcast that Frey was playing politics and did not prioritize protecting Americans.

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“That guy [Frey] is a lunatic. And we have lunatics who are running our cities. That exposes so many things. They would rather have their city fall apart,” Schneider said. “They would rather have it overrun by people who are not citizens. They don’t care about the safety of their particular citizens. It’s all a political show. And that guy is a disgrace. And I think you see that.”

“He is a bad faith actor. He doesn’t have what’s best in mind. He’s not trying to calm down the situation,” he added. “He’s using this as a time to drum things up, to make things more difficult. Because it’s just a political warfare. That’s what we’re dealing with.”

Protests have erupted in Minneapolis and other American cities in response to the shooting. “CBS Evening News” host Tony Dokoupil asked Frey on Thursday how he was “helping the situation calm down” amid protesters equating ICE with Nazis.

“What I appreciate about this situation right now is we in Minneapolis are all singing with one accord, which is one, we are going to stand up for our immigrant community, two, we’re going to keep people safe, and three, we’re not going to take the bait,” Frey said. “If you’ve watched how a lot of these protests have carried out, this is not some repeat of what we saw in 2020. What we see is the people saying, hey, hang on a second, ICE wants us to take the bait. They want us to screw up, do something wrong, and then ultimately see even greater military presence in our city.”

Democratic strategist Julian Epstein also argued on “2WAY TONIGHT” on Thursday that remarks from Democratic politicians about ICE contributed to the Wednesday shooting.

“They have not only failed to condemn violence in a meaningful way on an ongoing basis, using the language of Gestapo and they’re an occupying force and all this other incendiary language is giving a permission structure to, I think, a lot of the people on the professional left that are being, in my opinion, funded and is giving a permission structure for these violent confrontations, which tragically ended yesterday in a death,” Epstein said.