Governor of California Gavin Newsom speaks onstage during The New York Times DealBook Summit 2025 at Jazz at Lincoln Center on December 03, 2025 in New York City. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images for The New York Times)
Federal authorities and the administration said the ICE officer opened fire on Good after she allegedly used her vehicle as a weapon against the agent. Democrats have described the death as a "murder" and amplified criticisms of federal law enforcement officers in the days following.
Newsom was joined on the podcast by conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, who pressed him about his office's message linking ICE to terrorists.
"And then your press office tweeted out that it was state-sponsored terrorism, which I mean, governor, I do have to ask you about that," Shapiro said on the podcast, "This is Gavin Newsom." "That sort of thing makes our politics worse. Yeah, I mean, it does. I mean, our ICE officers obviously are not terrorists. A tragic situation is not state-sponsored terrorism."
Newsom responded: "Yeah, I think that's fair."
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during a news briefing in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on January 15, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
"The Democrat Party has demeaned these individuals," Leavitt said Thursday of federal immigration officers. "They've even referred to them as ‘Nazis’ and as ‘the Gestapo.’ And that is absolutely leading to the violence we're seeing in the streets.
"If you look at some of the images out of Minneapolis last night, look at this vehicle, look at what it says," Leavitt added. "It says, ‘F ICE.’ You have these individuals who are putting their middle finger, proudly so, at the camera, another ICE individual, a vehicle that was vandalized last night by these left wing agitators.
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The Department of Homeland Security reported in December that assaults and violent attacks against ICE law enforcement officers have surged more than 1,150% compared to attacks under the Biden administration. It found there were 238 assaults on ICE officers between Jan. 21, 2025 to Nov. 21, 2025, up from just 19 during the same timeframe in 2024.
Fox News Digital's Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/white-house-torches-newsom-inauthentic-slimeball-after-california-governor-walks-back-ice-rhetoric