“We’ve never been at war with our federal government.”
That was lame duck Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz on Jan. 7, responding to the death of Renee Nicole Good, talking about being at war with the federal government, apparently officially setting forth a policy to obstruct federal authority. The key issue once again is President Donald Trump’s efforts to enforce federal immigration and other laws.
To Walz and other Democratic Party governors, that is waging “war” on the states. When asked how he planned to use the National Guard, which he now has on stand-by.
But it gets worse. In the same press conference, Walz even said he was considering using the National Guard against “rogue federal agent[s]”, stating, “I don’t quite know how to respond to the question other than my primary responsibility as governor is the protection of the people of Minnesota. And you can be assured whether it’s the state patrol or whether it’s the National Guard, their deployment is there to protect Minnesotans from whatever it is. If it’s an act of nature, if it’s a global pandemic, or in this case, if it is a rogue federal agent… I don’t know at this time. And I want to be very careful.”
What an irresponsible thing for a governor to say. “Very careful”? Walz is saying he wants to use the National Guard against the federal government and federal agents, prohibited by 18 U.S. Code Sec. 253, the same statute that would authorize the President to federalize the National Guard in the event of rebellion, which waging war against the federal government entails.
Now, the nation once again reaches a boiling point.
Tragically, in the course of detaining a suspect who was obstructing federal law enforcement activity, prohibited by 18 U.S. Code Sec. 111, in Minneapolis with her SUV, an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officer used deadly force as the woman was using her SUV to speed into the officer who was standing directly in front of the vehicle while she was being detained. The event was captured on video and shows the woman initiating her vehicle’s accelerator while officers were surrounding the car, including the officer who was positioned right in front of the SUV.
It was reasonable for the officer to believe this was attempted murder of a federal agent, prohibited by 18 U.S. Code Sec. 1113.
“Federal officers cannot tackle an SUV. A car is a potentially deadly weapon. She was not engaged in self-defense, the officer was. If you are being surrounded by law enforcement and they’re drawing their weapons, the only thing to do is put your hands up and surrender, not hit the gas pedal. If you’re standing directly in front of a vehicle and the person driving jams on their accelerator, your life is in danger no question.
In this case, the officer appears to have used appropriate force pursuant to Department of Homeland Security policies, including 2023’s Update to the Department Policy on the Use of Force that states, “DHS [Law Enforcement Officers] LEOs may use deadly force only when necessary, that is when the LEO has a reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to the LEO or to another person.”
Many commentators have suggested the woman was attempting to flee. But deadly force also applies even if the suspect is attempting to escape, as explicitly noted by the policy, “deadly force is authorized to prevent the escape of a fleeing suspect where the LEO has a reasonable belief that the subject poses a significant threat of death or serious physical harm to the LEO or others and such force is necessary to prevent escape…”
This absolutely comes into play because the officer was standing directly in front of her vehicle, and who followed his training to protect his own life and anyone else who might have been struck by the vehicle.
This was a preventable tragedy. It was preventable because nobody should be obstructing federal law enforcement activities. The states could help, but they aren’t. And these kinds of tragedies, and much worse, are what have happened when the states refuse to cooperate with the federal government.
Walz could have said he was going to assist federal law enforcement to get illegal aliens and others who are defrauding the federal government and taxpayers of billions of dollars, maintain order as officers execute their duties and to above all keep radical agitators away from federal law enforcement. Instead, he joined the ICE obstructors and said he would use the Guard to wage war against the federal government. Is he nuts?
It’s also untrue. “We’ve never been at war with our federal government?” States definitely were at war with the federal government in the Civil War. It’s happened before and hundreds of thousands of Americans died because states would not submit to federal authority. You think Ukraine looks bad? Well, that’s what civil wars look like. It could happen again, with the most likely cause and historically the only cause ever for a civil war here was states rebelling against the federal government.
It’s fair to say Democrats hate Donald Trump just as much as they hated Abraham Lincoln. To prevent a war, the President should first communicate with the Governor directly in a meaningful way. Have a meeting, call or something. Let’s talk this out.
And then immediately take action to federalize the National Guard in Minnesota as Walz’ actions appear to be to deliberately provoke war. Walz doesn’t want to enforce the law, leaving the President with little choice.
But it’s also worth considering the Governor appears to want Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and federalize the Guard for political reasons apparently because it polls well for Democrats and energizes their voters. In 2020, the President failed to use the Guard to stop the riots. The Civil War started for political reasons, too.
But what else should the President do? Let Walz encourage other governments to obstruct the enforcement of federal laws? Walz has lost his mind, and he should resign in disgrace but he can just sit in the Governor’s mansion and watch while the President does his job for him and enforces the laws.
Put the fuse out before it gets lit, Mr. President.
Robert Romano is the Executive Director of Americans for Limited Government Foundation.
