Govs. Beshear, Whitmer denounce Trump’s threat to send military to Minnesota

Democratic governors are denouncing President Donald Trump’s threat to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota as “reckless and dangerous” and calling on their Republican counterparts to do the same.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, chair and vice chair, respectively, of the Democratic Governors Association, released a joint statement Thursday saying the Trump administration had “unleashed chaos and division in Minnesota.” They later urged Republican governors to also speak against Trump’s threat of military action. 

“Communities across the nation are on edge after a woman was killed and a man was shot. Threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act is reckless and dangerous,” the governors said. 

Protests in the state followed a fatal shooting by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross, who shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good in south Minneapolis last week. 

Another shooting of a man by an ICE agent Wednesday evening in Minneapolis increased tensions. 

Trump said on Truth Social Thursday that if Minnesota’s “corrupt politicians” did not “stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E.,” he would invoke the Insurrection Act to send in the military to stop protests. The 19th century law grants an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the military from performing domestic law enforcement.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, is among officials in the state who have called for the federal government to withdraw ICE agents.

“Our country is too divided. In moments like these, real leaders do the right thing and bring people together. You can’t do that by attacking states,” Beshear and Whitmer said. 

“We stand with Governor Walz, who has made it clear that violence is not acceptable and is calling to lower the temperature,” they continued. “We also call on our country’s Republican governors to join us in defending states’ rights by speaking out against these threats for a chaotic and un-American federal takeover.”

Last week, Beshear was critical of the Trump administration’s initial response to the shooting of Good calling it “grossly irresponsible.”