From the Daily Caller: Democratic Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison seemed to smirk after Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson accused him of motivating anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protesters to endanger themselves during a Thursday hearing.
There has been a national spotlight on Minneapolis, Minnesota, since the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by ICE and Border Patrol agents in January. Johnson, during the Senate Homeland Security hearing, said Ellison should feel culpable for their deaths.
“I can’t imagine encouraging people, ‘Put yourselves in harm’s way. Go out there and record that.’ 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’t deescalate this.’ But attorney general, you did the exact opposite,” Johnson said. “And two people are dead because you encouraged them to put themselves into harm’s way. And now you are exploiting those two martyrs. That was a tragedy. It never should have happened.”
“I can’t imagine being a law enforcement official where I know my colleagues have been shot at, theirs vehicles rammed … we know at least one of those activists had a semi-automatic pistol with extra clips,” he added. “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 it any wonder they’re at hair-trigger alert? A tragedy was going to happen and you encouraged it! And you ought to feel damn guilty about it.”
Johnson pointed out that this was a profession operation that was providing training to the anti-ICE activists, including the use of Signal chats to organize the protests.
Ellison brazenly admitted to being aware of the trainings and Signal chats, but claimed it was their First Amendment right.
WATCH the full exchange below, as Johnson became more furious by the minute, while Ellison remained smug and defiant.
Heated exchange between @SenRonJohnson and Minnesota @AGEllison:
Johnson: “A tragedy was going to happen, and you encouraged it, and you ought to feel damn guilty about it.”
Ellison: “Everything you said was untrue. It was a nice theatrical performance, but it was all lies.” pic.twitter.com/FtQN2MWPCb
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 12, 2026
Ellison, a progressive, was raised Catholic but converted to Islam at the age of 19, while he was in college. He served in the U.S. Congress from 2007 through 2018, and was elected as Minnesota’s first Muslim state attorney general in the November 2018 election. He was re-elected in 2022.
Johnson shared a video on X and wrote, “As a reminder, here’s Minnesota Attorney General @keithellison encouraging protesters that their “sacrifice is important” and that they will win because people “are putting their bodies on the line.” He, and other Democrat leaders, encouraged their trained activists to put themselves into harms way. As a result, they got their martyrs. And now he smirks about it.”
As a reminder, here’s Minnesota Attorney General @keithellison encouraging protesters that their “sacrifice is important” and that they will win because people “are putting their bodies on the line.”
He, and other Democrat leaders, encouraged their trained activists to put… pic.twitter.com/0uapM4Jy4C
— Senator Ron Johnson (@SenRonJohnson) February 12, 2026
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