After an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed Renee Nicole Good on January 7 during an immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, right-wing media reacted by blaming Good for her death, saying it "was her own doing” and attacking her character by labeling her “a perpetrator” and “trained agitator.”
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Right-wing media villainize and blame Renee Good for her own death in Minneapolis ICE shooting
Written by Gideon Taaffe, Isabella Sherk & Jack Winstanley
Published
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Right-wing media immediately pushed DHS’ spin to defend the ICE agent who killed Renee Nicole Good
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- Good was killed in Minneapolis by an ICE agent while she appeared to be trying to drive away during an ICE raid. The Washington Post reported “Good, 37, was a poet, a mother of three and a movie lover, according to online records and family members. She studied creative writing at Old Dominion University in Norfolk and won an Academy of American Poets Prize for undergraduate students in 2020.” Good’s mother told The Minnesota Star Tribune, “She was extremely compassionate. She’s taken care of people all her life. She was loving, forgiving and affectionate. She was an amazing human being.” [The Washington Post, 1/8/26; The Minnesota Star Tribune, 1/8/26]
- In the aftermath of the shooting, Fox News rushed to parrot DHS talking points that claimed Good was trying to harm ICE agents. While some Fox News personalities moderated their statements after footage of the incident was released, many still claimed Good tried to “ram” her car into an ICE officer and cited DHS talking points that it was an act of “domestic terrorism.” [Media Matters, 1/8/26]
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Right-wing media attacked Good’s character, calling her the “worst mother of the year,” a “lesbian agitator,” and a “rug munching leftist”
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- Fox News host Jesse Watters said Good was “a woman in crisis, living a chaotic life on the fringes.” He blamed the left for “radicalizing vulnerable Americans into risking their lives to protect illegal alien criminals.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 1/8/26]
- Newsmax host Rob Finnerty said that Good “gave her life on behalf of criminal illegal aliens, meaning she literally gave her life defending rapists and murderers and drug dealers.” [Newsmax, Finnerty, 1/8/26]
- Newsmax host Carl Higbie said Good is the “worst mother of the year” and she “should be at home with” her kids rather than “obstructing ICE agents.” [Newsmax, Carl Higbie Frontline, 1/8/26]
- Fox News host Brian Kilmeade attacked Good as a “trained activist” who was “harassing ICE officials every single day.” Kilmeade: “They said she was a poet who just panicked. Really? She was a trained activist who is a warrior leader of anti-ICE operations and was harassing ICE officials every single day.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 1/9/26]
- Right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson claimed Good was a “paid agitator.” Johnson asserted, “There is a lie about Renee Good, that she is somehow just like a working class mom that was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. That is a factually, totally and completely inaccurate. That is a lie. She is a trained and paid agitator.” [YouTube, The Benny Show, 1/9/26]
- Right-wing influencer Ian Miles Cheong attacked Good as a “rug munching leftist” and dismissed her as a “privileged white woman.” Cheong wrote, “All the pathos designed to make you feel sympathetic to the rug munching leftist having stuffed toys in her glove compartment to make you hate ICE fall flat when you recognize who and what this woman truly was.” [Twitter/X, 1/9/26, 1/9/26]
- The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh wrote that Good was a “lesbian agitator” who “gave her life to protect 68 IQ Somali scammers.” Walsh: “This lesbian agitator gave her life to protect 68 IQ Somali scammers who couldn’t give less of a shit about her. The most disgraceful and humiliating end a person could possibly meet.” [Twitter/X, 1/8/26]
- Right-wing podcaster The Quartering cast doubt on Good's parenting: “Reneé Good the super mom who tried running down an ICE agent did not have custody of her two older children, aged 15 and 12. We all know what it takes for a mom to lose custody.” [Twitter/X, 1/8/26]
- Daily Wire writer Megan Basham wrote that “Good was not just an ordinary mom dropping her child off. She was a trained agitator and she was there for the express purpose of obstructing ICE agents.” [Twitter/X, 1/8/26]
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Right-wing media blamed Good for her own death, claiming she was “100 percent” at fault and that she should have complied with ICE agents
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- The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh said Good is “100 percent to blame and her death is her own fault.” He posted: “It’s totally irrelevant whether she was trying to hit the ICE agent or not. Either she wanted to hit him or she wanted to evade arrest and escape and didn’t care if she hit him in the process. There is zero moral or legal difference between these two scenarios. In either case she is 100 percent to blame and her death is her own fault.” [Twitter/X, 1/9/26]
- Fox host Greg Gutfeld compared the killing of Renee Good to the Tide Pod challenge, saying, “If you are going to eat Tide Pods, there's not much else we can do except tell you not to do it.” He continued, “If you want to block a street, if you want to hinder and harass law enforcement, that’s your responsibility. If you had listened to me, some kid would still have his mother.” [Fox News, The Five, 1/8/26]
- Fox host Lawrence Jones said “I grieve for the young girl and I grieve for her family. But there are consequences to your actions.” He said that we should be reminding protesters to “be careful what you do” because “we don't live in Venezuela where we have anarchy in our society,” adding, “We do have law and order. We do have police officers.” [Fox News, The Five, 1/7/26]
- Speaking about Good's killing, right-wing podcaster Megyn Kelly said “I’m sorry but that was her own doing.” Kelly added, “Who among us would not understand that if we did not respond to law enforcement surrounding us, we were endangering ourselves? Who among us would expect to live if we pressed the accelerator with a cop in front of our SUV? That’s what she did. Everyone would know you’re putting your own life in danger.” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 1/8/26]
- Right-wing influencer Zack Hoyt, also known as “Asmongold,” wrote, “Comply with police and don't try to run them over.” He also commented, “Rip bozo” in reaction to the shooting. [Twitter/X, 1/7/26]
- While discussing the shooting, podcaster Tim Pool said “I wouldn’t call the person [Good] a victim. This is a perpetrator.” He added, “And you can make the argument all day and night about whether the cop needed to, but this is a person in a vehicle evading arrest.” [Rumble, TimCast IRL, 1/8/26]
- Right-wing podcaster Dave Rubin argued that the officer “did not pull out the gun until she started using the car as a weapon.” [YouTube, The Rubin Report, 1/8/26]
- Daily Wire host Michael Knowles declared, “When you park your car in the middle of the street, that's an act of violence.” Knowles also attempted to characterize Good as being armed with a deadly weapon, adding, “Pretty sure she was armed. Do you know how I know that? She was driving an SUV.” [The Daily Wire, The Michael Knowles Show, 1/8/26]