MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Insisting that he was in Minnesota to help “lower the temperature,” Vice President JD Vance on Thursday blamed “far-left people” and state and local law enforcement officials for the chaos that has convulsed the state during the White House's aggressive deportation campaign.
He also defended federal agents who detained a 5-year-old boy while making an immigration arrest.
The recent turmoil “has been created, I think, by a lot of very, frankly, far-left people, also by some of the state and local law enforcement officials who could do a much better job in cooperating,” the Republican vice president said.
“We’re doing everything that we can to lower the temperature," Vance said, adding that he wants "state and local officials to meet us halfway."
The Justice Department is investigating Minnesota's Democratic leaders, including Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, over whether they have obstructed or impeded law enforcement through their public statements. Walz and Frey have described the investigation as an attempt to bully the political opposition.
Federal officers stood in a row behind Vance as he spoke, and there were two Immigrants and Customs Enforcement vehicles emblazoned with the slogan “Defend the Homeland.”
His visit follows weeks of aggressive rhetoric from the White House, including President Donald Trump, who has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act — and send in military forces — to crack down on unrest in the state. Asked about that option, Vance said, "Right now, we don’t think that we need that."
Trump dispatched thousands of federal agents to Minnesota after reports of child care fraud by Somali immigrants. Minneapolis-area officials, including Frey, as well as the police, religious leaders and the business community have pushed back, and outrage grew after an agent fatally shot Renee Good, a mother of three, during a confrontation this month.
Vance defends actions by ICE agents
Vance has played a leading role in defending that agent, and the vice president previously said Good’s death was “a tragedy of her own making.” On Thursday, he repeated claims that Good “rammed” an agent with her car, an account that has been disputed based on videos of the incident.
Minnesota faith leaders, backed by labor unions and hundreds of Minneapolis-area businesses, are planning a day of protests Friday. Nearly 600 local business have announced plans to shut down, while hundreds of “solidarity events” are expected across the country, according to MoveOn spokesperson Britt Jacovich.
Vance pushed back against such criticism and defended ICE agents who detained the young boy as he was arriving home from preschool.
“When they went to arrest his illegal alien father, the father ran," Vance said. "So the story is that ICE detained a 5-year-old. Well, what are they supposed to do?"
The boy, who was taken by federal agents along with his father to a detention facility in Texas, was the fourth student from his Minneapolis suburb to be detained by immigration officers in recent weeks.
During an appearance in Ohio earlier in the day, Vance praised the arrest of protesters who disrupted a church service in Minnesota on Sunday and said he expects more prosecutions to come. The protesters entered the church chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good."
“They’re scaring little kids who are there to worship God on a Sunday morning,” Vance said. “Those people are going to be sent to prison so long as we have the power to do so."
He added: “Just as you have the right to protest, they have a right to worship God as they choose. And when you interrupt that, that is a violation of the law.”
The economy and the midterms
Vance’s stop in Ohio was focused primarily on bolstering the Republican administration’s positive economic message on the heels of Trump's appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The vice president also took the opportunity to boost some of Republicans' important statewide candidates in this fall's midterm elections, including gubernatorial contender Vivek Ramaswamy and U.S. Sen. Jon Husted.
Convincing voters that the nation is in rosy financial shape has been a persistent challenge for Trump during the first year of his second term. Polling has shown that the public is unconvinced that the economy is in good condition and majorities disapprove of how Trump's handling of foreign policy.
Vance urged voters to be patient on the economy, saying Trump had inherited a bad situation from Democratic President Joe Biden.
“You don’t turn the Titanic around overnight,” Vance said. “It takes time to fix what is broken.”
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Carr Smyth reported from Columbus, Ohio, and Peoples from New York.