Reality Check: They’re Lying to You About Minneapolis

What happened in Minneapolis, and how the Right lied about it in real time

After an ICE agent fatally shot an unarmed U.S. citizen, the Right went into spin mode, peddling an alternate version of reality

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Here’s What Happened

On Wednesday, an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in her car in Minneapolis. Two ICE agents approached, yelling at Good - a U.S. citizen - to get out of the car. An agent, who’s been widely identified as Jonathan Ross, stepped in front of the car as Good reversed and turned to avoid him. Ross fired his gun multiple times at the windshield and through the open driver’s side window as Good tried to drive away. The car accelerated for about 100 feet before crashing into parked cars up the street. Good was dead.

By now, we’ve seen video shot from multiple angles by eyewitnesses who were on the scene. So has The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, who all agree, this is exactly what the footage shows.

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Here’s What The Right Said

Immediately, Republicans fired up the propaganda machine. Here’s what we got from them:

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem called it “an act of domestic terrorism,” and claimed the officer “shot defensively.

Vice President JD Vance backed her up in a tweet:

“The gaslighting is off the charts and I’m having none of it. This guy was doing his job. She tried to stop him from doing his job. When he approached her car, she tried to hit him.

A tragedy? Absolutely. But a tragedy that falls on this woman and all of the radicals who teach people that immigration is the one type of law that rioters are allowed to interfere with.”

Republicans piled on, making sure to include all the requisite buzzwords for building out an alternate reality.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita checked all the boxes:

Speaker Mike Johnson repeated the self-defense line while talking to reporters.

“He made a snap judgment, as they do.”

As they do. The PR-friendly version of “shit happens.”

President Trump denied reality in real time.

He put in some elbow grease in building out the world in which these verifiable facts absolutely do not exist, going as far as watching the actual footage in the Oval Office with New York Times reporters, then telling them that what they’re all seeing isn’t actually whey they’re seeing.

The reporters pointed out the video clearly shows Good backing up her car and turning to drive away from the officer. Trump disputed the literal facts in front of him.

“Well, I — the way I look at it … ” he said.

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How the Right Wing Media Responded

The right wing media went to work reinforcing the Republican narrative by trotting out all of their favorite bogeymen.

Jesse Watters’ voice literally dripped with disdain while he reported on the shooting on Fox:

“The woman who lost her life was a self-proclaimed poet from Colorado, with pronouns in her bio. A 37-year-old white woman named Renee Good. The Daily Mail says she leaves behind a lesbian partner and a child from a previous marriage. She was a disruptor, though she considered herself a legal observer. But there’s no evidence she had a law degree.”

And here’s a Fox News headline on Wednesday evening:

Familiar groups mobilize immediately after ICE shooting of Minnesota protester

Coordinated protests launched by socialist, climate and Palestinian rights groups using similar language

MAGA’s bit players didn’t waste time, either:

Here’s The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh.

The Heritage Foundation’s Robby Starbuck simply denied what the footage shows.

Don’t forget, the Heritage Foundation gave us Project 2025, the blueprint for this Administration’s entire approach to dismantling democracy.

The conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec offered a baseless take on CNN’s footage:

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What it Says About How They Treat Their Audience

What’s shocking isn’t just the lie, it’s the Right’s expectation that their supporters will just lie down and accept it without question.

That’s not persuasion. That’s contempt.

The level of disdain Republicans have for their followers is astonishing. If my spouse lied to me the way Republican leaders lie to their supporters, constantly, shamelessly, in the face of completely incontrovertible evidence, there’s absolutely no one in my life who would tell me to stay with them. They’d say: get out now.

So my message: get out now.

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The Real Danger

The reality is… well, there isn’t one. There are two. One where facts are real, evidence matters, and the truth is objective, and another where the truth is whatever the Right wants it to be. That’s not a difference of opinion, that’s mass delusion. And it’s dangerous. If we can’t agree on what’s real, we have no chance.

This is what we’re up against.

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