Ellen DeGeneres, 67, broke her public silence on a shooting that has torn through Minneapolis for the past two weeks. On January 18, the sixty-seven-year-old former talk show host posted an Instagram Reel addressing the death of Renee Good, a 37-year-old killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on January 7.
“I am so sorry for what is happening in Minneapolis and our country, really, but specifically Minneapolis right now because that’s where I shot my last stand-up special and everybody there couldn’t have been more lovely,” Ellen DeGeneres said in the video. She then added personal reflection: “I shot it there because they say it’s the happiest city in America. And I found that to be true.”
The shooting itself remains contested. The Department of Homeland Security ruled it self-defense, claiming the victim posed a threat. However, people in Minneapolis have rejected that narrative with protesters demanding accountability for ICE Agents’ use of force and firearms.
DeGeneres extended her “thoughts and prayers” to the city while making a distinction that matters to her: “I am proud of everyone who is protesting peacefully. I am sorry for anyone who has been hurt just for protesting, for doing what you should be doing.”
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“Minneapolis, I love you,” Ellen DeGeneres wrote in the caption of the video, which gained traction and drew reactions from across the political spectrum.
Some supporters celebrated her speaking out. One commenter wrote, “Please be our voice.” Others used her platform as a launching point, urging her to address different global crises. But the backlash came swift and pointed.
One user fired back: “You really think anyone cares what you think now? Dream on.” Another questioned her consistency: “Are you sorry the officer got injured too?” A third brought immigration policy into the conversation: “Ellen you should ask these illegal immigrants to cooperate with ICE so no one has to protest!!”
Then came Megyn Kelly. The former Fox News host didn’t hold back on her podcast, The Megyn Kelly Show. Kelly opened with mockery: “I know you have been asking yourself—what, what would Ellen think of all this? She’s abandoned the United States to go live in the UK, but it’s still really important to all of us what she thinks.”
Kelly then dredged up Ellen DeGeneres’ past. “Let’s not forget why Ellen lost her daytime show,” she said. “It’s because she was a bully. She bullied people who are less powerful than she was. She had a rule: you were not allowed to look her in the eye as one of her producers when you walked past her in the hallway.”
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The host then connected this history to her current stance. “So it’s no surprise that Ellen DeGeneres is totally fine with what these so-called protestors, terrorists, are doing in the streets of Minneapolis.” Kelly blamed CNN for feeding DeGeneres what she called “lies,” stating: “She’s chosen to believe them because she’s ignorant and it’s willful. It’s not blindful ignorance. It’s willful ignorance. It suits her ideological purposes. Shame on her, enjoy England.”
What Kelly’s comments revealed wasn’t just disagreement over ICE policy. It was the weaponization of personal history in political discourse. DeGeneres’ workplace conduct from years past was being used as a cudgel against her current activism, whether or not the two things were connected.
The protests themselves continue. The Trump administration has defended the ICE agent involved, characterizing the shooting as self-defense and alleging the victim had engaged in what they call “domestic terrorism.” For Minneapolis, the fight over how to understand that January 7 death shows no signs of stopping.
