[Video below.] Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem clashed sharply with CNN anchor Jake Tapper on Sunday as she defended Immigration and Customs Enforcement following the fatal shooting of Renee Good, telling the host he cannot “change the facts” simply because he does not “like them.”

During a tense exchange on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Tapper pressed Noem on how she could so quickly label Good a “domestic terrorist” and publicly back ICE officer Jonathan Ross only hours after the incident.

“Everything that I’ve said has been proven to be factual,” Noem responded during the interview.

“[I] decided that the department and the people of this country deserve to know the truth of the situation of what has unfolded in Minneapolis.”

Tapper then zeroed in on Noem’s early description of the shooting last Wednesday, when she said ICE officers “were attempting to push out their vehicle, and a woman attacked them and those surrounding them and attempted to run them over.”

“That’s not what happened,” Tapper argued, later suggesting that his concern centered on whether Good had actually attacked the officers.

“It absolutely is what happened,” Noem countered. “[She] blocked the road for a long time and was yelling at them and impeding a federal law enforcement operation.”

Video from several angles captured the confrontation between Ross and Good that Wednesday. Good, a mother of three, had parked her vehicle in the roadway, preventing the officers from moving forward for more than three minutes.

When officers exited their vehicle to address the situation, Ross was positioned in front of Good’s car when she suddenly accelerated.

Ross jumped aside and fired a round into the windshield, then appeared to fire two additional shots into the side of the SUV.

Noem said Ross was later treated at a nearby hospital after being “hit by the vehicle” and was subsequently released.

Tapper questioned why Noem was convinced that Good was not “trying to move her car and flee and get away,” rather than intentionally striking Ross.

“The facts of the situation are that the vehicle was weaponized, and it attacked the law enforcement officer,” Noem said. “He defended himself, and he defended those individuals around him.”

“When there is something that is weaponized to use against the public and law enforcement, that is an act of domestic terrorism,” she added. “You don’t get to change the facts just because you don’t like them.”

Senior Trump administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, have forcefully defended Ross amid widespread criticism.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has confirmed that it is investigating the shooting.

“You see how quickly the situation unfolded, how the officer was in front of the vehicle when she sped off,” Noem told Tapper. “How she ran into him. And how he had to take quick action based on his training to defend himself and his colleagues.

“That’s very clear and factual from the videos that you can see, it’s nobody’s interpretation.”

Tapper later attempted to challenge Noem by airing footage of Capitol Police officers being assaulted during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, noting that those involved were later pardoned by President Donald Trump.

Noem dismissed the comparison, saying that “every single one of these investigations comes in the full context of the situation on the ground.”

She also criticized statements from Minnesota officials, singling out Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for calling on ICE to “get ….out of” the city.

“They’ve extremely politicized and inappropriately talked about the situation on the ground in their city. They’ve inflamed the public, they’ve encouraged the kind of destruction and violence that we’ve seen in Minneapolis in the last several days,” Noem said of local leaders.

“I would encourage them to grow up.”

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{Matzav.com}

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