OAN Staff Katherine Mosack and Brooke Mallory
6:44 PM – Thursday, January 15, 2026
In a fiery exchange that electrified the White House briefing room, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt delivered a masterclass in media accountability while standing firmly behind the men and women of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The confrontation ignited on Thursday when a columnist from The Hill, Niall Stanage, attempted to corner the administration about a recent law enforcement action in Minneapolis. However, Leavitt didn’t just parry the question, she dismantled the premise, exposing the “biased” line of questioning as nothing more than political theater.
As he questioned Leavitt on the conduct of ICE officers, Stanage shaped his line of inquiry to suggest negligence and excessive force by federal personnel.
“Earlier you were defending ICE agents generally. [Homeland Security] Secretary [Kristi] Noem spoke to media and said that ICE is doing ‘everything correctly.’ 32 people died in ICE custody last year, 170 U.S. citizens were detained by ICE, and Renee Good was shot in the head and killed by an ICE agent. How does that equate to them doing everything correctly?” Stanage asked.
“Why was Renee Good, unfortunately and tragically, killed?” Leavitt countered.
“Because an ICE agent acted recklessly and killed her unjustifiably,” he responded.
“Oh, okay, so you’re a biased reporter with a left-wing opinion,” Leavitt shot back.
Stanage retorted, “What do you want me to do?”
“You’re a left-wing hack. You’re not a reporter, you’re posing in this room as a journalist, and it’s so clear by the premise of your question,” Leavitt stated. “And you and the people of the media who have such biases, but fake like you’re a journalist. You shouldn’t even be sitting in that seat … you’re pretending to be a journalist, but you’re a left-wing activist … The question that you just raised, and your answer, proves your bias,” she continued.
Leavitt then went on to highlight 22-year-old Laken Riley, 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, and “all of the innocent Americans who were killed at the hands of illegal aliens,” whom ICE officers risk their lives to remove from the country.
“Do you have the numbers of how many American citizens were killed at the hands of illegal aliens who ICE is trying to remove from this country? I bet you don’t, I bet you didn’t even read up on those stories,” Leavitt said.
“Shame on people like you in the media who have a crooked view and have a biased view and pretend like you’re a real honest journalist,” she concluded.
Good, 37, was shot and killed last week by an ICE officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, when she followed immigration officers, blocked traffic with her car and disobeyed orders to exit her vehicle. She then clipped the agent with her car in an apparent attempt to flee.
Overnight on Wednesday, an illegal Venezuelan national in Minneapolis was shot and wounded in the leg after attacking an ICE agent with a snow shovel, increasing tensions between unruly protesters and law enforcement officers in the city.
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