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Ellen DeGeneres is taking heat from right-wing commenters after speaking out about the death of Renée Nicole Good, a Minneapolis woman who was shot and killed by an ICE agent earlier this month.
The backlash flared after DeGeneres reposted a statement from Good’s wife and added her own blunt reaction: “I’m so sad, and so angry, and so worried.”
The Instagram posts quickly turned into a political brawl, with critics telling DeGeneres to “take a seat,” according to LGBTQ Nation’s reporting.
What Ellen Posted, and Why It Set People Off
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LGBTQ Nation reports that DeGeneres shared Becca Good’s public statement about her wife’s killing and amplified the grief behind it, without hedging her emotions.
The repost included language that has become central to how supporters describe the moment Good was shot, especially this line from Becca Good:
- “We had whistles. They had guns.”
After DeGeneres posted, commenters hostile to her position flooded the replies. LGBTQ Nation describes the response as MAGA-driven outrage, with critics framing her grief and anger as something she had no right to express.
The Follow-Up Video From Minneapolis
DeGeneres posted again, this time with a video message filmed in Minneapolis, where she recorded her most recent stand-up special. In the clip, she praised people protesting peacefully and expressed worry for those who were injured in the unrest around the shooting.
That follow-up matters because it shows she was not making an abstract political point. She was speaking directly about a city and community she had recently spent time in, and about a death now driving protests and national scrutiny.
What We Know About Renée Nicole Good’s Death
Renée Nicole Good, 37, died on January 7, 2026, after a confrontation involving ICE in Minneapolis. Reporting has identified the shooter as ICE agent Jonathan Ross.
People, citing an independent autopsy commissioned by the family, report Good was found with four apparent gunshot wounds, including a fatal head wound.
The incident escalated into a national story in part because video circulated widely, and public debate over the shooting hardened quickly across partisan lines.
Polls Show the Public Has Largely Turned Against the Shooting
DeGeneres walked into a story that is already politically radioactive, and polling suggests most Americans are not buying the justification for the killing.
A Quinnipiac University national poll release dated January 13, 2026, found:
- 53% of registered voters said the shooting was not justified
- 35% said it was justified
- 82% said they had seen the video
ABC News, summarizing that poll and other polling, reported the same toplines and noted the sharp partisan split in how Americans interpret the killing and ICE’s role more broadly.
Why the “Take a Seat” Pile-On Became the Point
The LGBTQ Nation piece treats the backlash as a cultural signal. DeGeneres did not write a long political thread or endorse a candidate. She posted grief, anger, and fear, then got dragged for stepping outside the emotional boundaries certain online factions try to enforce.
That is the mechanics of the outrage cycle the article is documenting: a celebrity expresses a human reaction to a fatal shooting involving federal law enforcement, then becomes the target, not for misinformation, but for taking a side emotionally.
