White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday responded to Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes’s recent comments, where she justified violence against federal law enforcement officials and suggested they could shoot and kill ICE agents under Arizona’s stand your grounf law.
As The Gateway Pundit reported, Mayes, in a recent televised interview, suggested that you have the right to kill masked ICE agents in Arizona. “We’re a gun culture in this state,” she said. “You have these masked Federal officers with very little identification, sometimes no identification, wearing plain clothes and masks. And we have a stand your ground law that says that if you reasonably believe that your life is in danger, and you’re in your house or your car or on your property, that you can defend yourself with lethal force.”
“You’re not allowed to shoot peace officers,” she added. “But how do you know they’re a peace officer?”
Even 12 News’s Brahm Resnik attempted to push back, noting the possible interpretation of a call for violence, but she doubled down.
Mayes tried to claim that she isn’t giving a “license” to Arizonans to kill ICE agents, but went on to suggest a possible legal defense for somebody who does. “It becomes, did they reasonably know that they were a peace officer, you know?”
WATCH:
“Such dangerous rhetoric, as I pointed out, is exactly what has brought us to this position today, where you have elected Democrat officials across the country who are encouraging left-wing agitators and crazy people to go out and unlawfully obstruct lawful immigration enforcement,” Leavitt said, pointing to statements she made about Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and the “deliberate and hostile resistance by Democrat leaders in Minnesota,” which led to the death of two anti-ICE rioters this month.
“I would encourage everyone in this room, and I would encourage the Arizona Attorney General to look at the video of an ICE agent in Minneapolis. He was approached by left-wing agitators who were honking their horns and were screaming slurs at him, and he rolled down his window, and he said, ‘What are you doing? I am out here trying to catch a child predator, somebody who has convicted crimes against an innocent child, and you are trying to obstruct me from doing my job,’ Leavitt continued.
“This rhetoric against ICE, comparing them to “Nazi Gestapo,” Donald Trump’s police force, is despicable, it is shameful, and it is precisely what has led to the escalation of tensions in Minneapolis and in other places across the country.”
However, Leavitt declined to say whether or not the White House wants to see consequences for Mayes’s violence-inciting comments or whether the Department of Justice should open an investigation into the Attorney General’s attempt to justify murdering law enforcement.
WATCH:
Conradson: I want to get your response to this. The Arizona Attorney General, just days before this shooting in Minneapolis, she seemingly encouraged rioters to go out and shoot and kill ICE agents. And I’ll quote her here. She said, “If you reasonably believe your life is in danger and you’re in the house or in your car or on your property, you can defend yourself with lethal force.” And she said that you can’t tell if ICE agents are law enforcement or imposters, and it becomes an issue of whether you reasonably believed they were law enforcement. Do you have a response to that? And does the White House believe that she should be held accountable for these remarks?
Leavitt: Such dangerous rhetoric, as I pointed out, is exactly what has brought us to this position today, where you have elected Democrat officials across the country who are encouraging left-wing agitators and crazy people to go out and unlawfully obstruct lawful immigration enforcement. Again, these brave men and women of ICE and Border Patrol and the federal enforcement are just trying to do their jobs to enforce our nation’s immigration laws and to go after the worst of the worst in this country.
I would encourage everyone in this room, and I would encourage the Arizona Attorney General to look at the video of an ICE agent in Minneapolis. He was approached by left-wing agitators who were honking their horns and were screaming slurs at him, and he rolled down his window, and he said, “What are you doing? I am out here trying to catch a child predator, somebody who has convicted crimes against an innocent child, and you are trying to obstruct me from doing my job.” This rhetoric against ICE, comparing them to “Nazi Gestapo,” Donald Trump’s police force, is despicable, it is shameful, and it is precisely what has led to the escalation of tensions in Minneapolis and in other places across the country.
Conradson: Should the DOJ be looking into her for justifying violence?
Leavitt: I would defer you to the Department of Justice on that.
The Gateway Pundit also asked Leavitt on Monday to respond to the media’s outrage and defense of Alex Pretti, who was shot by a CBP agent on Saturday after allegedly pulling a handgun out during as agents wrestled him to the ground.
Leavitt, in response, slammed the “selective outrage” from leftist media networks in their coverage and glorification of Pretti, whose death she blamed on the hostile circumstances created by Tim Walz and Jacob Frey.
WATCH: WH Press Sec Slams Media’s “Selective Outrage” Over Alex Pretti When Asked “Where was that Outrage when Ashli Babbitt was Executed”
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