First Lady Melania Trump made a rare political statement on Tuesday calling for ‘unity’ amid weeks of unrest in Minnesota.
‘I’m against the violence, so please, if you protest, protest in peace,’ she told Fox & Friends on Tuesday morning.
Melania, an immigrant from Slovenia, rarely makes public statements, especially as it related to political issues or her husband’s job.
But during television appearance promoting her upcoming movie, the first lady affirmed the ‘great call’ President Donald Trump had with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, both Democrats, on Monday.
‘They’re working together to make it peaceful and without riots,’ she insisted.
Melania’s decision to comment on the riots and clashes with immigration enforcement agents highlights the severity and the division the issue has created in the US.
On Saturday, eight agents surrounded and took down VA nurse Alex Pretti who was on the streets during an ICE protest. Video showed that after Pretti was disarmed of his handgun, which was holstered on his belt, he was shot multiple times by at least one of the agents. He died on scene.
This came just over two weeks after poet Renee Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent when she was in her car blocking a street and started to advance her vehicle towards the agent.
Both incidents were caught on camera and have caused uproar among those who view the events differently.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has vehemently defended the agents involved in the shootings.
She called Pretti a ‘domestic terrorist’ during a press conference on Saturday.
While President Trump backed the agent who shot Good after video showed he was hit by the vehicle she was driving at the time of the incident, he did not just to the defenses in the case of the Pretti shooting.
Attorney General Pam Bondi’s deputy, Todd Blanche, pushed back when asked Monday whether he agreed that Pretti’s actions amounted to the legal definition of ‘domestic terrorism.’
‘Look, I don’t think anybody thinks that they were comparing what happened on Saturday to the legal definition of domestic terrorism,’ Blanche replied after trying to deflect the question by criticizing Minnesota’s Democratic leadership.
‘And you’re right — to the extent there’s body cam or other videos that witnesses are still providing to us. So I’m not describing it as anything except for a tragedy,’ he added.
A YouGov/Economist poll released January 13 in the wake of the shooting of Good – but before Pretti was killed – shows only 34 percent of Americans think ICE operations are making America more safe, and 47 percent think the mission is making the US more unsafe.
The issue is highly polarizing, with 77 percent of Republicans believing ICE is making the US safe and only 3 percent of Democrats feeling the same.
