Cross posted to the MRC's NewsBusters blog
On Saturday's The Weekend, MSNBC enabled the throwing around of more Nazi references as one guest excoriated ICE as "Trump's Gestapo," and another called it Trump's own "national police" that has no accountability.
The latest demonization came during a discussion of ICE arrests in a Chicago apartment building from a few days ago. Guest and former D.C. police officer Michael Fanone fretted: "We do have this agency now which appears to become -- to have become a national police force for the Trump administration, and that's ICE. This is an agency which is unaccountable to the American people, and, in a democracy, law enforcement agencies must be accountable to the American people."
After Fanone complained about members of Congress being denied immediate entry to inspect ICE facilities, co-host Jonathan Capehart brought up the recent raid of an apartment building. He did not mention that they were trying to find about a half dozen Tren de Aragua gang members in the building as the MSNBC host read from a New York Times article:
JONATHAN CAPEHART: ... "The New York Times did a story about the early morning -- Tuesday early morning raid, if you will, in that Chicago neighborhood. And I want to read part of it. 'Early on Tuesday, federal agents, using drones, helicopters, trucks and dozens of vehicles, conducted a middle-of-the-night raid on a rundown apartment building on the South Side of Chicago, leaving the building mostly empty of residents by morning and neighbors stunned.' Quote, 'It felt like we were under siege,' said one bystander."
Addressing retired Major General Randy Manner, Capehart posed: "Is that the proper use not only of National Guard but of federal law enforcement? Your reaction to that kind of action being conducted in an American city on American citizens?"
Manner -- who was appointed by President Barack Obama to the National Guard Bureau -- decried ICE as "Trump's Gestapo" as he clarified that the National Guard was not involved in the raid:
First of all, it's all wrong -- it's all wrong. Secondly, those were not National Guard -- those were not military. It's very, very important all your listeners understand that, while they were wearing military uniforms, those were not military people. Those, quite frankly, that is Trump's Gestapo. That's who ICE agents are. They are lawless, they do not follow the rule of law, and it's extremely dangerous for for us to have those kind of people with those kind of leaders in our American cities.
Co-host Jackie Alemany soon cued up Fanone to accuse the Trump administration of trying to recruit people as ICE agents who like violence:
JACKIE ALEMANY: It has been impossible not to watch the marketing operation that is being done by Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski within the agency to attract more people to do the kind of work that we are seeing play out in these pretty horrific militarized immigration operation videos that people are capturing. What are the kinds of people that you think the Trump administration is trying to attract at this point when they are putting out advertisements like people polishing the Statue of Liberty, calling for them to apply to become an ICE agent?
MICHAEL FANONE: I mean, I think they're -- it's pretty obvious they're trying to attract people that -- that are willing to engage in violence on behalf of the administration's policies -- people that are attracted to the profession because it, you know, at times can allow them to -- to use violence. I think it's plain and simple.
Transcript follows:
MSNBC's The Weekend
October 4, 2025
9:04 a.m. Eastern
MICHAEL FANONE, FORMER D.C. POLICE OFFICER: We do have this agency now which appears to become -- to have become a national police force for the Trump administration, and that's ICE. This is an agency which is unaccountable to the American people, and, in a democracy, law enforcement agencies must be accountable to the American people. We've had members of Congress who are trying to exercise oversight over their facilities, which they are legally obligated to do, and they've been denied entry. You have masked ICE agents who, you know, if they are conducting themselves in a manner that is outside of their, you know, legal purview, there's no way to hold these people accountable.
I've talked to law enforcement agents across the country -- agencies who have said, "We've had citizens come to file complaints against ICE agents, and ICE refuses to cooperate with us and share the identities of those agents." And so, again, another example of an agency that is unaccountable to the American people.
EUGENE DANIELS: And they don't know -- and sometimes you don't know what department they're from. They're not wearing -- not all of them are wearing ICE-identified jackets.
JONATHAN CAPEHART: And their faces are covered. General Manner, The New York Times did a story about the early morning -- Tuesday early morning raid, if you will, in that Chicago neighborhood. And I want to read part of it. "Early on Tuesday, federal agents, using drones, helicopters, trucks and dozens of vehicles, conducted a middle-of-the-night raid on a rundown apartment building on the South Side of Chicago, leaving the building mostly empty of residents by morning and neighbors stunned."
Quote, "It felt like we were under siege," said one bystander. Earlier in the show, we -- Eugene read from another story where people -- you had I guess military or National Guard -- these federal agents repelling from Blackhawk helicopters into -- into this neighborhood. Is that the proper use not only of National Guard but of federal law enforcement? Your reaction to that kind of action being conducted in an American city on American citizens?
RETIRED MAJOR GENERAL RANDY MANNER, U.S. ARMY: First of all, it's all wrong -- it's all wrong. Secondly, those were not National Guard -- those were not military. It's very, very important all your listeners understand that, while they were wearing military uniforms, those were not military people. Those, quite frankly, that is Trump's Gestapo. That's who ICE agents are. They are lawless, they do not follow the rule of law, and it's extremely dangerous for for us to have those kind of people with those kind of leaders in our American cities.
(...)
JACKIE ALEMANY: It has been impossible not to watch the marketing operation that is being done by Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski within the agency to attract more people to do the kind of work that we are seeing play out in these pretty horrific militarized immigration operation videos that people are capturing. What are the kinds of people that you think the Trump administration is trying to attract at this point when they are putting out advertisements like people polishing the Statue of Liberty, calling for them to apply to become an ICE agent?
FANONE: I mean, I think they're -- it's pretty obvious they're trying to attract people that -- that are willing to engage in violence on behalf of the administration's policies -- people that are attracted to the profession because it, you know, at times can allow them to -- to use violence. I think it's plain and simple.