WATCH: Noem avoids taking back her statement that Alex Pretti committed 'act of domestic terrorism’

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, gave Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem an opportunity Tuesday to retract comments she had made about the U.S. citizens fatally shot by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis earlier this year.

“Let me give you an opportunity to do the right thing: Do you retract these statements identifying these individuals as ‘domestic terrorists’?”

Noem began by saying she typically offers condolences to victims’ family members.

“We always work to provide the American people with as much information as possible, that we're relying on reports from the ground and from agents that are there and working to be transparent and will continue to do all that we can to provide the accurate information and the facts to people as we can.”

Durbin asked where Noem got that information, adding that immigration enforcement officials had recently testified that they didn’t inform Noem that Alex Pretti, shot and killed on Jan. 24, was a “domestic terrorist.”

Noem said she got her information from agents of the ground, describing the shooting as a “chaotic scene.”

After more back-and-forth with Noem, the senator said, “Is it so hard to say you were wrong?”

Noem’s agency has been roiled by turmoil and public outcry in recent days. The shooting of two U.S. citizens by federal officers in Minneapolis prompted weeks of protests in the Twin Cities area. Trump officials, including Noem, accused the victims – Pretti and Renee Good – of committing acts of “domestic terrorism.”

But bystander videos challenged the administration’s narrative of the high-profile shooting deaths, and documented DHS deploying other aggressive tactics. Greater scrutiny by Democrats into the ways the Trump administration has been carrying out his mass deportation agenda led to a lapse in the agency’s funding and partial government shutdown.

Congressional lawmakers have yet to reach a deal to fund the department, though there are areas of bipartisan agreement, such as a body camera requirement for immigration enforcement agents.

Noem will also field questions Wednesday from the House Judiciary Committee.

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