Democrats have come out against federal law enforcement’s use of lethal force following shootings involving federal immigration officials in Minneapolis and Portland last week, with some going so far as to accuse them of murder. 

However, their attitudes about lethal force after a U.S. Capitol police officer killed Ashli Babbitt paint a very different picture of these Democrats’ views on police using lethal force. 

As recently as this year, Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who have rebuked Trump administration arguments that shootings involving federal immigration officials last week were justified, also rebuked a multimillion-dollar settlement awarded to the family of Ashli Babbitt earlier this year, calling it a “slap in the face” and a “sickening message to police.” Babbitt was shot and killed by a U.S. Capitol Police officer during the Jan. 6 riot as she was pushing and beating against a door that led into the Speaker’s Lobby just outside the House chamber along with a mob of others. 

Several other Democrats who supported law enforcement’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, have gone off on federal border patrol officials following the Portland and Minneapolis shootings last week, with some going so far as calling them murderers.

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In Minneapolis, a woman accused of interfering with federal deportation efforts was fatally shot by ICE in Minneapolis, while an illegal immigrant couple who DHS said were deeply involved in criminal activity were shot by CBP agents in Portland after the driver of the car tried to ram his vehicle into agents.

Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., referred to the actions of ICE in Minneapolis as “murder” in a post on X. However, just days before, on the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot, Goldman reintroduced legislation to “honor those who defended the capitol” when a mob took it over in 2021.

Rep. Primal Jayapal, D-Wash., who has claimed to have been very close to Babbitt when the Speaker’s Lobby was trying to be breached, has chastised Republicans who she believes have failed to adequately honor U.S. Capitol Police for their work on Jan. 6, 2021. “They were begging for protection from Capitol Police. Yet they refused to honor Capitol Police there[after], refused to accept that it was real,” Jayapal told Teen Vogue in 2022. 

Meanwhile, after the shootings last week, Jayapal too accused federal border patrol officials of committing murder, telling local news the incident “looked like outright murder” to her eyes. 

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Reps. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Jason Crow, D-Colo., were also among those Democrats praising Capitol Police for their actions on Jan. 6, 2021 last week, while condemning the federal officer involved in the shooting that occurred as well. Crow complained that a plaque honoring U.S. Capitol Police officers who protected people on Jan. 6 was not hung up because of GOP obstruction, but was unafraid to condemn federal officials for “kill[ing]” someone. Raskin, who has also condemned the multimillion-dollar settlement to the Babbitt family, said he was “sickened” at ICE agents for “killing” a woman in Minneapolis. 

Raskin’s colleague from Oregon, Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., demanded on X last week that federal immigration officers be held accountable for their involvement in the Portland shooting. She referred to the illegal immigrant gang members shot as “victims,” even though they tried to ram their car into officers. However, after the Capitol riot in 2021, Bonamici regularly praised the “heroism” of the U.S. Capitol Police and suggested they should be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. 

Rick Wilson, co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, sought to explain the discrepancy between Democrats’ reaction to Babbitt’s shooting versus the ICE shootings in a post on X, arguing “Babbitt was a domestic terrorist,” and the victim killed in Minneapolis, Renee Good, “was a mom, murdered by ICE.”

When reached for comment, Raskin echoed Wilson’s sentiment, arguing two different investigations found the Babbitt shooting was “entirely reasonable and appropriate.” He added that anyone taking the position that Good was treated properly would also have to agree that hundreds of protesters on Jan. 6, 2021 “could have been legitimately shot in the face three times.”

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“Without the benefit of any investigation, Trump and his Administration have labeled Ms. Good, a U.S. citizen and 37-year-old mother of three, a ‘domestic terrorist’ and immediately excused her killing after she was shot three times at point-blank range, not while charging at the police but while trying to get away from them,” Raskin said. “In both cases, the Trump Administration is telling the American people to ignore the law and the evidence of their own eyes.”

Raskin also demanded in his comments to Fox News Digital that, following the Minnesota ICE shooting, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “must appear to answer questions” before lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

During the subsequent days following last week’s shooting, U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks slammed rhetoric from left-wing politicians for emboldening folks to do things like ram their cars into federal immigration officials.

“The rhetoric they are putting out. The constant lies they are putting out to their constituents – saying things like kidnapping, disappearing, it’s encouraging these people to continue violating the law. They are actually putting their constituents in danger.”

The fear of flying is less a single phobia than a place where other fears converge. For many people, it’s rooted in one or more anxieties that flying brings into focus — the fear of turbulence, of heights, or of having a panic attack in front of strangers with no escape.

For Vance, being inside an aircraft activates her claustrophobia — a condition she developed at nine years old. A series of surgeries caused her to feel severe anxiety in closed spaces. Her panic attacks increased during her teenage years, especially on airplanes.

“If I’m in a car, I can pull over, open my door and get some relief,” she says. “But when I’m in a plane, there’s no out.”

A safe space to face the fear

Air travel isn’t something that most people can do often enough to ease their anxiety. Each trip can feel like starting all over again.

Luckily, Vance found somewhere to practice being uncomfortable: the Fear of Flying Clinic, a nonprofit support organization hosted at the San Francisco International Airport.

Fran Grant and Jeanne McElhatton, both licensed pilots, founded the clinic in 1976 in San Mateo, California. They created an educational program in order to help Grant’s husband overcome his turbulence anxiety so he could travel to Australia.

The curriculum demystified air travel and addressed the physical and psychological roots of fear. The first clinic welcomed a small group of anxious travelers and, by the end, Grant’s husband was calm enough to sleep through turbulence that had once overwhelmed him.

Today, clients from across California spend two consecutive weekends understanding the mechanics of flight and learning how to rewire their anxious thoughts. A four-day workshop culminates in a round-trip graduation flight to Seattle.

Vance arrives at the clinic on the first day with her mother, Louise, joining eight other participants, including one couple who drove in from Fresno. Volunteers run the workshop — many of whom are nervous flyers and have gone through the clinic themselves — and include instruction from working pilots, air traffic controllers, flight attendants and aircraft maintenance technicians.

Volunteer psychotherapist Paula Zimmerman begins the workshop by asking everyone to introduce themselves and their concerns about flying. Reasons for signing up range widely: panic attacks, childhood trauma from an earthquake, a decades-old rescue mission during the Vietnam War. One participant in their fifties had never even been inside an airplane.

Often, Zimmerman says, they sign up because of an important upcoming trip.

Retrain the brain

Zimmerman wants participants to understand the difference between adrenaline and real danger. Her goal is to help them to distinguish between the thing that’s happening to them and how they think about the thing that’s happening to them.

She writes the letter “A” on a large sheet of paper at the front of the room. A stands for an activating event — like, for example, turbulence.