House Speaker Mike Johnson claims ignorance of fatal ICE shooting in Maine

Johnson Claims No Knowledge of Fatal Maine ICE Shooting

House Speaker Mike Johnson deployed his familiar strategy of professing ignorance during a Tuesday morning press conference, this time regarding the fatal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shooting in Biddeford, Maine, that occurred the previous day.

On Monday, Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a 26-year-old father, was killed by an ICE agent. The incident marks the eleventh fatal ICE shooting of Donald Trump's current term. According to reports, Guerrero was authorized to work in the United States and had not been the target of an immigration operation.

Body Camera Concerns Raised

The agents involved in the high-profile incident were reportedly not wearing body cameras. Benjamin Weiss of Courthouse News pointed out to Johnson that this contradicts assurances made by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials to Congress regarding the expansion of body camera use among agents.

Weiss asked Johnson: "Does there need to be accountability on DHS from Congress here?"

Johnson replied: "Uh, I don't know anything about this event, OK? I was a little busy yesterday, so I'm going to reserve judgment. I know that there was a tragic shooting, and I'm not going to comment because I don't know."

Preemptively defending himself against accusations of ignoring an inconvenient news item, Johnson told reporters: "You guys can mock me for not knowing that. I worked about 22 hours the last few days, and I did not get the briefing on that. I will this morning."

Related coverage: ICE Targeted Wrong Person in Fatal Maine Shooting

Internal Chaos Revealed in Contraceptive Stockpile Controversy

Last year, the Trump administration publicly lied about the content and status of a multimillion-dollar stockpile of contraceptives allocated for foreign aid but slated for destruction amid Elon Musk's dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Newly disclosed records now show that the government's internal discussions about the stockpile were as chaotic as its external statements were dishonest.

Key Developments

• Destruction plans: Last summer, the administration announced plans to destroy approximately $10 million worth of contraceptives stored in a Belgian warehouse. The products, already paid for by U.S. taxpayers, were allocated for women and girls in Africa.

• False claims: By the fall, the administration falsely told the press that the contraceptives were abortifacients—substances used to induce abortion—and that they had been destroyed.

• Reality: The contraceptives were largely ruined due to improper storage, despite storage costs reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the USAID Office of Inspector General.

New Reporting

New reporting published Tuesday by The Washington Post reveals that falsehoods surrounding the stockpile were pervasive internally as well as externally. The findings add to mounting evidence of incompetence—whether willful or not—within Musk's so-called "Department of Government Efficiency."

In one email cited by the report, an official at the U.S. Embassy to Belgium informed a State Department contact about the situation, further illustrating the confusion that surrounded the handling of the stockpile.