“A tragedy was going to happen.”
Senator Ron Johnson unloaded on Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison during a Senate hearing on Thursday. Johnson blasted Ellison for encouraging anti-ICE violence, resulting in the deaths of Minnesotans Rene Good and Alex Pretti.
“I, as a government official, would have said, ‘Back off. Let us work with ICE. Let’s cooperate with them. Let’s see if we can’t de-escalate this,'” Johnson told Ellison.
“But Attorney General, you did the exact opposite. And two people are dead because you encouraged them to put themselves into harm’s way. And now you’re exploiting those two as martyrs. That was a tragedy. It never should’ve happened,” Johnson continued.
“Now, we can investigate. I can’t imagine being a law enforcement official where I know my colleagues have been shot at, their vehicles rammed, and that there are trained activists deployed. And by the way, you know one of those activists had a semi-automatic pistol with extra clips. So now you’re an ICE officer. You’re doing an 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? A tragedy was going to happen, and you encouraged it. And you ought to feel damn guilty about it,” Johnson added.
Watch the clip below:
🚨 HOLY CRAP! Sen. Ron Johnson just RIPPED Minnesota AG Keith Ellison to his FACE
“Two people are DEAD because you ENCOURAGED them to put themselves into harm's way! And now you are EXPLOITING those two as ‘martyrs.’”
“IT NEVER. SHOULD’VE. HAPPENED.”
“A tragedy was GOING to… pic.twitter.com/NZQcihzYxS
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) February 12, 2026