The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, accused a reporter of being a “leftwing activist” during a heated confrontation on Thursday over the killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent last week.

Beginning his question during the White House press briefing, Niall Stanage, a White House columnist for the Hill, referred to the Trump administration’s staunch defense of ICE agents and the assertion by the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, that ICE are “doing everything correctly”. He pointed to statistics showing that last year 32 people died in ICE custody and 170 US citizens were detained by ICE, before noting that Good was “shot in the head and killed by an ICE agent”.

“How does that equate to them doing everything correctly?” he asked Leavitt.

“Why was Renee Good unfortunately and tragically killed?” Leavitt asked. Stanage asked whether Leavitt was asking him his opinion, to which she said: “Yeah.”

“Because an ICE agent acted recklessly and killed her unjustifiably,” Stanage replied.

Leavitt then shot back: “OK, so you’re a biased reporter with a leftwing opinion … Because you’re a leftwing hack. You’re not a reporter, posing in this room as a journalist. And it’s so clear by the premise of your question. And you and the people of the media who have such biases but fake like you’re a journalist, you shouldn’t even be sitting in that seat.”

She went on: “But you’re pretending like you’re a journalist, but you’re a leftwing activist. And the question that you just raised and your answer proves you’re biased. You should be reporting on the facts. You should be reporting on the cases.”

Leavitt told him he should be more focused on how many American citizens were killed by “illegal” immigrants.

“I bet you didn’t even read up on those stories,” she said. “I bet you never even read about Laken Riley or Jocelyn Nungaray or all of the innocent Americans who were killed at the hand of illegal aliens in this country and the brave men and women of ICE are doing everything in their power to remove those heinous individuals and make our communities safer. And shame on people like you in the media who have a crooked view and have a biased view and pretend like you’re a real, honest journalist.”

Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis during a federal immigration enforcement raid on 7 January. Her killing has sparked impassioned protests and condemnation across the country, as well as ongoing political debate over the basic facts of the incident, which was captured on video.

The Trump administration has staunchly defended the agent, who has been identified as Jonathan Ross, claiming that he fired multiple shots at Good in self-defense as she tried to ram him and other officers with her car. The FBI has only just begun investigating the incident.

Trump falsely said in an interview with the New York Times that Good “ran him over”, while Noem accused Good of “domestic terrorism”. JD Vance wrote on X that Ross was “defending his life against a deranged leftist who tried to run him over”. US officials have also alleged that Ross suffered internal bleeding when he was hit by her vehicle.

However, video reconstruction of the event by the New York Times seems to indicate that the car did not strike Ross and that Good was attempting to flee the area rather than run officers over.

With thousands of federal immigration agents still in Minneapolis after Good’s killing, the city erupted in protests once again following the shooting of a man in the leg during an enforcement operation in a northern neighborhood on Wednesday, prompting Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, to call on Trump to “turn the temperature down”.

In a statement, he asked the president to “stop this campaign of retribution” and urged demonstrating Minnesotans to “speak out loudly, urgently, but also peacefully”.