Red-state Republicans just proved they're as callous as Trump
On Tuesday, after 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good was shot in Minneapolis at close range by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee’s 5th District didn’t wait too long to weigh in with his opinions.
If you’ve been following Ogles, who was first elected to Congress in 2022, you won’t be surprised to hear he didn’t offer sympathy.
No, he posted first on social media that Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell should be arrested.
“Minneapolis Mayor (Jacob) Frey and Nashville Mayor O’Connell are cut from the same cloth. It’s deeper than rhetoric, its (sic) political decisions intended to betray ICE and Federal partners. ICE agents are in danger because of them. Illegal aliens are NOT our friends. They should be arrested immediately,” wrote Ogles on X and Facebook.
The reference to Mayor Frey came after he said, in a press conference following the shooting, that ICE needs to “get the f--- out of Minneapolis.”
Four hours later, Ogles posted, “Send the (National) Guard to Nashville!” and said that the shooting of Good was justified.
There’s a lot to unpack here, but what stands out — beyond the obviously heinous and inhumane support for the killing of an innocent woman by federal agents — is a sitting congressman’s apparent willingness to call out the military in his own district, for what appears to be no reason other than to mess with the mayor of the largest city in that district.
Besides the fact that O’Connell has done nothing more than say about May ICE raids in Nashville that “these people don’t share our values,” Ogles’ call for arresting him shines a dangerous spotlight on O’Connell in a period in which political violence is a clear and present danger.
Less than a year ago, a man dressed as a police officer murdered Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband after shooting a state senator and his wife.
Surely, I thought to myself — surely — some members of our federal delegation will respond to the shooting in a more dignified and compassionate way.
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen of the Memphis-based 9th Congressional District and the only Democrat in the delegation, issued a statement.
“Today’s incident is just what I feared: out-of-control, masked ICE agents fatally misusing their authority and inflaming our communities. Today, it happened in Minneapolis, but it could be Memphis, which also has an outsized and aggressive ICE presence,” the statement read.
I decided to check the social media feeds of the other members of Tennessee’s federal delegation, including U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, and found little.
U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett of Knoxville’s 2nd Congressional District, used the somber day to call for an investigation into the immigration records of his Democratic colleague, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota congresswoman who was born in Somalia but emigrated to the U.S. with her family when she was 13.
To initiate such proceedings at all, but especially on the day an American citizen was gunned down in the district Omar represents, is beyond petty: It’s callous, repugnant and hateful.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security initially deployed thousands of ICE agents to Minneapolis as part of a Trump administration operation targeting Somali immigrants, all because an article claimed — with little evidence to support it — that Somalian residents are defrauding public programs in the state and using the money gained to fund terrorist organizations.
It may be a new low for Burchett, but at least we know where he stands.
Finding nothing on Wednesday’s social media feeds of Tennessee’s other six U.S. representatives and two senators reflecting on the Minnesota tragedy, I emailed their press secretaries.
I heard back from only 6th District Rep. John Rose, a candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.
In a statement, Rose said, “What happened in Minneapolis is tragic. No one wants to see a young woman lose her life or children lose their mother. It’s awful.
“But, we must acknowledge the facts. Multiple law enforcement officials were attempting to communicate with Ms. Good who, rather than responding in a reasonable manner, steered her car and accelerated toward a federal law enforcement official,” read the statement. "Life-saving action was taken to prevent the death of that officer.”
I give him credit for responding, although the videos viewed by my colleagues at the Minnesota Reformer do not support this version of events; from the other members of the delegation, I received nothing: not a “no comment,” much less a tepid “thoughts and prayers” comment of the type our elected officials usually offer.
Again, I checked their social media accounts on Thursday.
Blackburn, also running in the Republican gubernatorial primary, called for the denaturalization of anyone “who comes to the United States to steal from the American people” by committing fraud.
A few months ago, Charlie Kirk, a right-wing podcaster, was shot and killed by a private citizen at a speaking event, and these same representatives didn’t hesitate to post that they were “devastated” by his murder — which is fine and appropriate. Kirk’s murder was horrendous, and lawmakers of both major political persuasions should have, and did, speak out against it and political violence in general.
Yet, most of the same Tennessee lawmakers who expressed sadness and rage over one killing, expressed not an ounce of empathy for Good’s family or offered solace to their own constituents feeling fear, hurt and sadness.
Know that most, if not all, of these representatives will be reelected in November, and unless electoral trends experience a cataclysmic reversal in the next eight months, Rose or Blackburn will be Tennessee’s next governor.
It’s important to assess their reactions to the killing of a citizen by government agents, because while I hope this is the last such incident, I am fearful it will not be.
- An award-winning columnist, Holly McCall has been a fixture in Tennessee media and politics for decades. She covered city hall for papers in Columbus, Ohio and Joplin, Missouri before returning to Tennessee. Holly brings a deep wealth of knowledge about Tennessee’s political processes and players and likes nothing better than getting into the weeds of how political deals are made. Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
