Democratic officials, TikTokers, liberals take their anti-ICE rhetoric to the next level
From viral videos on TikTok to top officials, rhetoric against Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Trump administration enforcement operations has hit a fever pitch.
Figures from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to Bruce Springsteen to Stephen King have expressly likened ICE to the Gestapo, the notorious secret police of the Nazi Germany regime.
California Rep. Eric Swalwell, who is running for governor, has vowed to make ICE agents unhirable for state jobs, and Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner vowed to "hunt down" ICE agents, saying, "In a country of 350 million, we outnumber them. If we have to hunt you down the way they hunted down Nazis for decades, we will find your identities. We will find you. We will achieve justice."
Late-night hosts like Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel have also gotten in on the act, with Colbert simply saying "F--- ICE" on his show Monday night, while Kimmel decried "just one atrocity after another, being committed by this gang of poorly trained, shamefully led, mask-wearing goons," in the wake of the federal agent killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson called for a Nuremberg-like trial for Trump immigration advisor Stephen Miller, saying he hoped he was "tried and convicted" and then "f---ing dangles," suggesting he hoped he was hanged.
On the streets, rhetoric has included an interview of a man saying they will get Trump and his "goons" out of office, and then "there will be justice."
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A nurse at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Health was fired this week after posting a series of videos suggesting ways to harm ICE agents.
The nurse in question used a now-deleted TikTok account, Redheadredemption, and was quickly identified as an employee at VCU Health. Popular X account LibsOfTikTok posted a compilation of three of the nurse's TikTok videos on X, sparking viral outrage.
"Single ladies, where these ICE guys are going, have a chance to do something, you know, not without risk, but could help the cause for sure," the nurse said in one video. "Get on Tinder, get on Hinge, find these guys. They're around. [If] they're an ICE agent, bring some ex-lax and put it in their drinks. Get them sick. You know, nobody's going to die. Just enough to incapacitate them and get them off the street for the next day. Highly, easily deniable."
In another video, she said, "Sabotage tactic, or at least scare tactic. All the medical providers, grab some syringes with needles on the end."
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"Have them full of saline or succinylcholine, you know, whatever. Whatever. That will probably be a deterrent. Be safe," the nurse continued.
A Democratic candidate for attorney general in Ohio also sparked immediate backlash over a social media post explaining his plan to "kill Donald Trump."
"I want to tell you what I mean when I say that I am going to kill Donald Trump," Elliot Forhan, Democratic candidate for Ohio attorney general and a former state representative, posted on Facebook Monday.
Forhan continued, "I mean I'm going to obtain a conviction rendered by a jury of his peers at a standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt based on evidence presented at a trial conducted in accordance with the requirements of due process resulting in a sentence duly executed of capital punishment."
Leigh McGowan, known on social media as PoliticsGirl, posted a video this week saying that any senator who voted to fund ICE was "out of their f------ mind."
She called ICE a "mob of unhinged murderers."
"If you are a US senator right now, do not write a f------ tweet. Do not write a f------ tweet. Write a bill. Write a bill that abolishes this heinous department. Yes, we need immigration officers, but we don't need whatever the f--- these guys are," she said.
A self-described "Antifa" member in Minneapolis called for "armed" men to get their "boots on the ground" in a video posted to social media.
"I'm Kyle, I'm Antifa, and everybody in my DMs and calling me and blowing me up, I love all of you," Wagner said in an Instagram video. "I understand that the women who see this are really scared that their husbands are going to go and not come back, and that's real, and I am very sorry ladies that that is what is happening, but I don't understand how you're struggling to follow that they're going to keep killing us if we don't end this. And we can't end this without good men in the streets, armed and ready to protect innocent people from being gunned down by these massed murderers, these fascist occupiers."
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In another video on social media, the self-described Antifa member said told people to "get their f------ guns and stop these f------ people."
Fox News' Peter D'Abrosca and Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.