Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Ron Johnson Screams At Smirking Keith Ellison Over Minnesota Protester Deaths

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Democratic Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison seemed to smirk after Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson accused him of motivating anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protesters to endanger themselves during a Thursday hearing.

There has been a national spotlight on Minneapolis, Minnesota, since the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by ICE and Border Patrol agents in January. Johnson, during the Senate Homeland Security hearing, said Ellison should feel culpable for their deaths.

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“I can’t imagine encouraging people, ‘Put yourselves in harm’s way. Go out there and record that.’ I, as a government official would have said, ‘Back off. Let us work with ICE. Let’s cooperate with them. Let’s see if we can’t deescalate this.’ But attorney general, you did the exact opposite,” Johnson said. “And two people are dead because you encouraged them to put themselves into harm’s way. And now you are exploiting those two martyrs. That was a tragedy. It never should have happened.”

“I can’t imagine being a law enforcement official where I know my colleagues have been shot at, theirs vehicles rammed … we know at least one of those activists had a semi-automatic pistol with extra clips,” he added. “So now you’re an ICE officer, you’re doing enforcement action,  you’ve got a team behind you trying to protect you. You’ve got all these trained activists behind you. Is it any wonder they’re at hair-trigger alert? A tragedy was going to happen and you encouraged it! And you ought to feel damn guilty about it.”

After Johnson concluded his remarks, he noticed Ellison appearing to smirk and called him out for it.

“Are you asking me for comment, senator? ‘Cause everything you said was untrue,” Ellison said. “It was a nice theatrical performance but it was all lies.”

“You disgust me,” Johnson replied.

Prior to Good’s shooting, she volunteered for the Minnesota branch of “ICE Watch,” which notifies others of nearby immigration enforcement operations.

Moreover, Pretti appeared to be filming Border Patrol agents with his cellphone shortly before his death, according to videos evaluated and verified by ABC News.