On Wednesday morning after a woman was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis during an enforcement operation, Mayor Jacob Frey, reacted by telling ICE to "get the f--- out of Minneapolis", and by calling a claim of self defense for the shooting, "bull-s---." He also accused ICE of "sowing chaos on our streets."
Less than 24 hours prior, Frey made that same accusation during an appearance on CNN's OutFront with Erin Burnett, where he was allowed to say just about anything he wanted to.
Burnett's segment introduction included a gratuitous shot at President Trump, which Frey was more than happy to pick up on later.
BURNETT: "The largest immigration operation ever". That is what ICE says is happening as I speak, in the state of Minnesota. And they say this includes 2,000 federal agents being deployed to Minneapolis. The Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem herself, is there on the ground. She joined an ICE raid in St. Paul earlier today. And all of this coming on the heels, of course, of a giant welfare fraud scandal in the state that President Trump has put front and center nationally, including fixating on how dozens of those charged in one case are members of the state's Somali community, a community that Trump has called garbage...
The media blame Trump for making billions of dollars in welfare fraud a story when they didn't want to touch it.
She then turned to Mayor Frey.
BURNETT: ..Do you know what they're doing, what those agents are doing? Is there any coordination or even, are they telling you anything?
FREY: I don't think the agents know what the agents are doing. This is not about solving crime. This is not about preventing fraud. This is about sowing chaos on the streets of Minneapolis. And that's what they are intent on doing right now. I mean, if the goal was to stop crime, we have mechanisms to do so. We've worked in the past substantially with the U.S. Attorney's office. And, by the way, driven down crime substantially...And if the Trump administration was looking to, you know, work on crime, we would be supportive of that. But that's not what they're doing, what they are doing is an intent to terrorize people in our city, and specifically target our immigrant neighbors. And we're standing rock solid with them.
Law and order is "sowing chaos." Protesting law enforcement by any means necessary is not.
Instead of asking Frey to back up his outrageous claims of an "intent to terrorize," Burnett played a clip of Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, who called sanctuary cities a "magnet" that brings other illegal aliens to come there to take advantage of welfare, and public assistance.
BURNETT: So, what do you say? Is there a connection between illegal aliens come in and it's a magnet for others, including a criminal element?
FREY: No, they're getting all of this backwards. I mean, here's the thing. Fraud, bad. Crime, bad. But again, what the Trump administration is doing here is they are playing a race games. They are explicitly racist in a number of occasions here. And that's what they're trying to do on our streets .. If they were actually looking to do work in these areas, there is work to do. That's not what they care about, what they care about is stoking fear and stoking chaos on our streets. And we've seen it time and again.
Again and again, Burnett lets the Mayor accuse President Trump and his administration of racism and more, with no pushback whatsoever. After his latest claim, Burnett could have asked for examples of what he's was talking about, but nope, on to the next topic. She played a clip of the Mayor speaking in Somali and noted some criticism of that.
BURNETT: So that was seized on by right wing media. They say that you were doing that just for political pandering. Glenn Beck says, why would the Mayor of Minneapolis speak Somali to immigrants who love America and says it's 100% about politics...What do you say to him?
FREY: I'd say to him that the only reason that they're upset is that I'm speaking Somali... I guarantee that if I was speaking French, he would not be losing it right now. If I was speaking Norwegian, he would not be losing it. Why is he losing it? He's losing it because its people of color coming from Africa...
Glenn Beck only objects to Frey pandering for Somali votes because he is a racist? No pushback. Frey's rant continued, as he turned back to ICE, again, with more outrageous claims about how ICE tramples on civil rights daily:
FREY: ..They're, you know, dragging a pregnant woman through the streets for no reason at all. I mean, they're -- they're pulling kids over that have done nothing wrong other than they look Somali or they look Latino. That's not how we operate in America, you know? Again, if they wanted to work on crime or to prevent fraud, there's certainly ways to do that. That's not what this administration is about..
BURNETT: Yeah. Mayor Frey, I appreciate your time, as always. And thanks so much.
Yes, thanks so much Mr. Mayor, come back anytime and say anything you want, accuse Trump, and ICE of racism and more, and I'll say nothing. Utterly disgraceful.
