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Brooks: Won't Judge Minneapolis, But ICE Has Acted 'Like Thugs'
The trio of PBS News Hour host Geoff Bennett, MS NOW host Jonathan Capehart, and New York Times columnist David Brooks assembled on Friday to discuss the situation in Minneapolis. While Bennett failed in his moderating duties to mention new evidence that would seem to justify the ICE agent acting in self-defense, Capehart was still certain that he was in the wrong. Brooks, meanwhile, claimed he did not wish to pass judgement before an investigation but nevertheless agreed that ICE has been “acting like thugs.”
Not only did Bennett not discuss the new video—PBS did play it earlier in the show before the Brooks and Capehart segment—but he didn’t even mention the word “car” when he asked Capehart, “So, Jonathan, this week marked a grim turning point, as an ICE agent, as you both well know, shot and killed a U.S. citizen during an enforcement operation as part of President Trump's expanded immigration raids. Your reaction to all that's unfolded?”
Capehart declared, “It's a tragedy that's been unfolding in other communities around the country. I think Governor Walz, Minnesota Governor Walz, was correct when he said to the president, you know, these federal agents, these ICE agents, they're not making us safer. You are making the community, our citizens, more afraid.”
According to Capehart, Rennee Good’s reaction was perfectly understandable, “And why shouldn't they be afraid? Not just because of what happened to Renee Good, but the way they have been operating, not just in Minneapolis, but in other cities across the country, unmarked cars, unidentifiable, masked. People don't know who these people are who are lunging at them on streets, lunging at them in their cars.”
In the incident, you can clearly see flashing lights indicating the car belongs to law enforcement. Still, Capehart claimed that people condemning Minnesota officials’ incendiary rhetoric are the ones with the problem:
The righteous indignation that we have heard from state and local officials, from the governor, most definitely from the mayor, I think is warranted. And anyone giving Mayor Frey, Minneapolis Mayor Frey, the blues for being very explicit in what he wants ICE officers to do, how he feels about this, which is more unconscionable, him dropping the F-bomb or having a person who lives in his city killed by federal agents no one asked for? The mayor didn't ask for them. The governor didn't ask for them.
Bennett then turned to Brooks, “David, video of the shooting spread almost instantly. And just as quickly, the White House and DHS moved to label it an act of domestic terrorism, that the ICE agent, they said, was acting in self-defense. What does this whole thing reveal about how narratives are being set before investigations are even complete?”
Not just the White House and DHS, liberals including Frey and Capehart had their own narrative that they were pushing prior to an investigation, which came before the new video Bennett omitted, which showed an officer demanding Good and her wife, Rebecca, get out of the car, and then Rebecca urging Good to “drive, baby, drive.”
That new information could have been useful for Brooks, because he began with a digression into a 1951 football game between Dartmouth and Princeton that later turned into a social experiment on how people see what they want to see in controversies. That led him to recall, “every single Trump person on my feed, my social media feeds was saying, this proves he shot her with just cause. And every single anti-Trump person on my feed said it was murder. I did not see one exception. And so I think what this tells us is the norm, which is essential to democracy, of putting the truth above your party and your team, that norm is eviscerated, at least on social media, hopefully not in real life.”
With that in mind, Brooks claimed, “I'm not going to render a judgment on what happened, because we're going to have an investigation.”
However, Brooks wasn’t exactly being neutral, “But what Jonathan said is absolutely correct, that the atmosphere that ICE has created is incendiary, that people who have power and have guns are supposed to exercise restraint, and they are doing the opposite. And the crust of civilization is thin. And once people with guns and with power began acting like thugs, well, then things are going to spiral. And that's what we have seen.”
If Brooks really wants to wait for an investigation, then aligning himself with Capehart, who has already made up his mind, is not the way to do it.
Here is a transcript for the January 9 show:
PBS News Hour
1/9/2026
7:35 PM ET
GEOFF BENNETT: So, Jonathan, this week marked a grim turning point, as an ICE agent, as you both well know, shot and killed a U.S. citizen during an enforcement operation as part of President Trump's expanded immigration raids. Your reaction to all that's unfolded?
JONATHAN CAPEHART: It's a tragedy. Excuse me. It's a tragedy that's been unfolding in other communities around the country.
I think Governor Walz, Minnesota Governor Walz, was correct when he said to the president, you know, these federal agents, these ICE agents, they're not making us safer. You are making the community, our citizens, more afraid.
And why shouldn't they be afraid? Not just because of what happened to Renee Good, but the way they have been operating, not just in Minneapolis, but in other cities across the country, unmarked cars, unidentifiable, masked. People don't know who these people are who are lunging at them on streets, lunging at them in their cars.
And so I think that the indignation, or, as I say, the righteous indignation that we have heard from state and local officials, from the governor, most definitely from the mayor, I think is warranted. And anyone giving Mayor Frey, Minneapolis Mayor Frey, the blues for being very explicit in what he wants ICE officers to do, how he feels about this, which is more unconscionable, him dropping the F-bomb or having a person who lives in his city killed by federal agents no one asked for?
The mayor didn't ask for them. The governor didn't ask for them.
BENNETT: And, David, video of the shooting spread almost instantly. And just as quickly, the White House and DHS moved to label it an act of domestic terrorism, that the ICE agent, they said, was acting in self-defense.
What does this whole thing reveal about how narratives are being set before investigations are even complete?
DAVID BROOKS: Yeah, let me talk first about the public debate, and then about the event, which Jonathan was talking about.
In 1951, there was a brutal football game between Princeton and Dartmouth. And after the game, researchers sent the Princeton kids and the Dartmouth kids film, the exact same film video of the game. And the Princeton kids said, look, this film proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Dartmouth kids did twice as many penalties.
And the Dartmouth kids said, this film proves without a shadow of a doubt that the Princeton kids did all the penalties. And so they were looking at the same video. And it's a very famous social science experiment. And I watched it play out in real time this week, because every single Trump person on my feed, my social media feeds was saying, this proves he shot her with just cause.
And every single anti-Trump person on my feed said it was murder. I did not see one exception. And so I think what this tells us is the norm, which is essential to democracy, of putting the truth above your party and your team, that norm is eviscerated, at least on social media, hopefully not in real life.
As to the events of what actually happened, I'm not going to render a judgment on what happened, because we're going to have an investigation. I will leave it to them. And I hope Minnesota has full information to do the investigation.
But what Jonathan said is absolutely correct, that the atmosphere that ICE has created is incendiary, that people who have power and have guns are supposed to exercise restraint, and they are doing the opposite. And the crust of civilization is thin. And once people with guns and with power began acting like thugs, well, then things are going to spiral. And that's what we have seen.