(NewsNation) — Mick Mulvaney, a former chief of staff to President Trump, says the optics of an ICE officer’s fatal shooting of a motorist in Minneapolis is likely to reflect more poorly on politicians who defend the action, at least where swing voters are concerned.
New video surfaced Friday showing the officer’s perspective of Wednesday’s incident, in which driver Renee Good tried to pull away from an escalating confrontation. Republicans in the White House and Congress have defended the officer’s shooting of Good, a 37-year-old mother, while Minnesota’s governor and other Democrats have condemned the shooting as unjustified.
Mulvaney estimated about a third of Americans, essentially swing voters, are not automatically siding along partisan lines in the wake of the tragedy.
“They just want to know if it looks right to them — does it look fair to them; does it look just? And I’ve got to tell you: I don’t think that it does. I really don’t,” Mulvaney, a NewsNation political and economic contributor, told “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” on Friday.
“I mean, I think I could defend the ICE officer in a court of law, but I’m not sure I want to be a politician out on the campaign, defending the action to swing voters because it just looks bad. There’s a rule, by the way, in politics … if you’re explaining, you’re losing. And right now, I think the Trump White House is explaining.”
Mulvaney said ideally, politicians on both sides of the aisle would refrain from issuing judgments in the case until an investigation has been completed. Minnesota state police officials say they have been boxed out of the investigation by the FBI, which is fueling claims by critics that a whitewash is underway.