GOP senator, Minnesota AG clash at Capitol Hill hearing: ‘Sit there and smirk, it’s sick’

A Republican senator accused Minnesota’s attorney general of flashing a “despicable” smirk Thursday following a tense exchange at a hearing on Capitol Hill, — a reaction the Democrat in turn described as a “nice theatrical performance.” 

Tensions escalated at the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs oversight hearing after Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., alleged Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison was encouraging unrest in Minnesota, which has been rocked by recent anti-U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protests and the shooting deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good. 

“Were you ever concerned about encouraging — I guess, people that support you — to go out and put themselves into harm’s way by impeding and obstructing a legal law enforcement action. Did that ever concern you?” Johnson asked Ellison. 

“Sir, that never happened. We [at] all times said if you want to protest, protest peacefully, protest safely. But you’ll never find me being against the First Amendment. I’ll always be for the First Amendment,” Ellison responded.

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Johnson then said, “I can’t imagine encouraging somebody that supported me politically to go and put themselves into harm’s way.” 

“Their vehicles have been rammed by some of these peaceful protesters, probably the trained activists. They’ve had rocks thrown at their vehicles. I can’t imagine encouraging people ‘put yourself in harm’s way, get out there and record that,’” Johnson said about anti-ICE sentiment. 

“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 de-escalate this. 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 martyrs. That was a tragedy. It never should have happened,” he continued. 

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“So now you’re an ICE officer, 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 there any wonder… a tragedy was going to happen, and you encouraged it. And you ought to feel damn guilty about it,” Johnson concluded.

He then told Ellison, “Yeah. Sit there and smirk. Smirk. It’s sick. It is despicable.” 

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“Are you asking me for comment, Senator?” Ellison said. “Because everything you said was untrue. It was a nice theatrical performance, but it was all lies.”