02/16/2026
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Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sat in that Senate hearing Thursday looking smug while two Americans lie dead in Minneapolis.
Senator Ron Johnson wasn’t having it.
The Wisconsin Republican was about to call him out in a way that exposed exactly what Minnesota Democrats have done.
Senate Hearing Revealed What Minnesota AG Won’t Admit About ICE Protests
Johnson laid out the damning timeline nobody in mainstream media wants you to see.
ICE officers had been shot at while executing lawful enforcement operations in Minneapolis.
Federal vehicles rammed by protesters, rocks thrown at agents trying to do their jobs.
And through it all, Keith Ellison and Minnesota Democrats weren’t calling for calm – they were filing lawsuits, comparing agents to Nazis, and watching as tensions escalated toward tragedy.
“I can’t imagine encouraging somebody that supported me politically to go and put themselves into harm’s way,” Johnson said. “Particularly when you know that these law enforcement officials had been shot at.”
He pointed to the reality ICE agents faced every day.
Armed protesters with semi-automatic pistols coordinating through Signal chats.
Federal officers knowing colleagues had been attacked, vehicles targeted, the next encounter could turn deadly.
“So now you’re an ICE officer,” Johnson continued. “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?”
The senator put responsibility exactly where it belongs.
“A tragedy was going to happen and you encouraged it. And you ought to feel damn guilty about it.”
That’s When Ellison Made His Fatal Mistake
Ellison sat there smirking.
Actually smirking while Johnson held him accountable for two dead Americans.
Johnson saw it and erupted.
“Sit there and smirk. Smirk. It’s sick. It is despicable.”
The moment captured everything wrong with Minnesota’s Democrat leadership – treating dead Americans as political props while showing zero remorse for creating the chaos that killed them.
Ellison’s response?
“Everything you said was untrue. It was a nice theatrical performance, but it was all lies.”
No accountability.
No responsibility.
Just denial from a Democrat who spent weeks encouraging confrontation while ICE agents faced daily attacks.
Renee Good And Alex Pretti Died After Democrats Encouraged Confrontation
Renee Good, 37-year-old mother of three, was shot January 7th while acting as a “legal observer” recording ICE operations.
Alex Pretti, 37-year-old ICU nurse, was shot January 24th after positioning himself between Border Patrol agents and a woman they’d pushed to the ground.
Both were doing exactly what Democrat leaders encouraged – putting themselves into direct confrontation with federal agents operating in increasingly dangerous conditions.
Would these tragedies have happened if Ellison, Governor Tim Walz, and Mayor Jacob Frey had done their jobs?
If they’d worked to de-escalate instead of inflame?
If they’d told supporters to let ICE do its job instead of filing lawsuits claiming the operation was “retribution”?
Almost certainly not.
Tom Homan Ended Minnesota Surge After Democrats Created Chaos
Over 3,000 federal agents deployed to Minneapolis starting December 2025 for Operation Metro Surge – the largest immigration enforcement operation in U.S. history.
They faced coordinated opposition from day one.
Ellison filed federal lawsuits claiming the operation violated First Amendment rights and targeted Minnesota for voting blue.
State and city attorneys collected evidence against ICE rather than investigating attacks on federal officers.
Minneapolis police issued guidance saying they wouldn’t even help with crowd control around immigration operations – leaving ICE agents completely isolated.
Massive demonstrations at negative 20 degrees drew 50,000 people downtown.
Schools went to remote learning because chaos made it unsafe for kids to attend.
Federal agents didn’t create that environment.
Keith Ellison did.
He encouraged Minnesotans to view ICE as an invading army needing citizen resistance.
He framed cooperation with federal immigration enforcement as betrayal.
And when agents – already attacked, already on edge – made split-second decisions ending in tragedy, Democrats blamed Trump.
Border Czar Tom Homan announced Thursday the operation is ending.
Not because Democrats were right.
Because improved cooperation from local jails means arrests can happen away from street confrontations.
The Smirk That Revealed Everything
Keith Ellison’s smirk wasn’t just disrespectful.
It was revealing.
He doesn’t feel guilty about Good and Pretti.
He sees them as useful martyrs for the Democrat narrative that ICE is evil and Trump is waging war on Minnesota.
Senator Josh Hawley also tore into Ellison during the same hearing, accusing him of complicity in $9 billion fraud and declaring “you ought to be indicted.”
The pattern is consistent.
Ellison enables chaos, encourages resistance to federal law enforcement, files lawsuits against Trump operations, then denies responsibility when his rhetoric produces deadly consequences.
Ron Johnson’s confrontation wasn’t political theater.
It was a U.S. Senator holding a state official accountable for encouraging behavior that got Americans killed.
Two Americans are dead because Keith Ellison put political opposition to Trump ahead of keeping Minnesotans safe.
Johnson said it plainly.
Ellison denied it defensively.
But the smirk gave away the truth – he’s not sorry, and he’d do it again.
That’s exactly why Ron Johnson was right to call him out.
Sources:
- Ian Schwartz, “Sen. Ron Johnson to MN AG Ellison: You Encouraged A Tragedy To Happen, Despicable To Watch You ‘Sit There And Smirk’,” RealClearPolitics, February 12, 2026.
- Julia Bonavita, “Minnesota AG Keith Ellison accused of ‘despicable’ smirk at Senate hearing,” Fox News, February 13, 2026.
- Rebecca Beitsch, “Minnesota officials face off at fiery Senate hearing over ICE: Five takeaways,” The Hill, February 13, 2026.
- Rebecca Beitsch, “Ron Johnson blames Minnesota’s Keith Ellison for Renee Good, Alex Pretti deaths,” The Hill, February 12, 2026.
- “Operation Metro Surge,” Wikipedia, accessed February 13, 2026.
- “Killing of Renée Good,” Wikipedia, accessed February 13, 2026.
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