Tony Dokoupil’s ‘Both Sides’ Take on Minneapolis ICE Shooting Ridiculed as ‘A Waste of Words’ | Video

Tony Dokoupil‘s rocky launch as “CBS Evening News” anchor faced another hit after he was slammed for presenting a “both sides” take on the Minneapolis ICE shooting.

Dokoupil broadcasted the CBS News program from the Minnesota city Thursday evening in the wake of an ICE agent fatally shooting a 37-year-old woman, named Renee Nicole Good, the day before. As the newsman signed off his broadcast, he shared his final thoughts on the incident, noting that Americans aren’t listening to one another following the tragedy.

“What we have not yet heard is one another,” Dokoupil said. “I spoke to people today who haven’t slept since it happened, who want ICE out now, who don’t like masked men on their streets, don’t want their neighbors arrested, don’t want families ripped apart. I’ve heard too, not on the streets protesting, but in passionate notes in my inbox from people who want to see our immigration laws enforced legally and peacefully and with safety for all, including the officers who, in many cases, are also parents themselves.”

He continued: “These are both deeply American sentiments. But our job now is maybe the most American thing of all. It’s to find a way to live with people who are genuinely different from us, to try to be fair to them. And, in doing so, to make things better and keep things decent because, in America, no one else is going to do it for us.”

Watch his full statement below.

Dokoupil’s approach to the incident swiftly sparked backlash online, with many voicing their disappointment in the anchor sharing a “both sides” framing of the issue — something he did earlier in the week while commenting on the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

“What a waste of words,” one fan blasted on YouTube. “He didn’t really say anything. Trying to walk that in-between line.”

Dokoupil faced similar criticism on X, with one user writing in response, “Both sides again. SMH.” Another chimed in with, “Bunch of platitudes and fence sitting. Arguing compassion is paramount… Dumb.” A third dragged “CBS Evening News” as being a “2.0” of Fox News.

Yet, many MAGA supporters felt Dokoupil was too left-leaning with his sentiments, with one writing, “You are not being neutral.” A second critic posted, “This segment ended any credibility you may have been lent.”

Two very different accounts have been shared regarding Wednesday’s fatal shooting. During a press conference Wednesday, United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem accused the victim of weaponizing her vehicle by attempting to run over the ICE official.

“This appears as an attempt to kill or to cause bodily harm to agents, an act of domestic terrorism,” Noem said. “The ICE officer, fearing for his life and the other officers around him and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots. He used his training to save his own life and that of his colleagues.”

Trump co-signed this take on Truth Social, writing, “The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense.”

However, an eyewitness account of the shooting has refuted the self-defense claim. Emily Heller, who captured Wednesday’s Minneapolis ICE shooting on camera, told CNN’s Erin Burnett that the “self defense” narrative was “absolutely not what happened.”

“They were screaming at her to move, move, move. And then they approached her vehicle aggressively and tried to open her door,” she recalled. “And then, that’s when she got spooked, and she reversed her vehicle to turn her wheels to try to escape. And that’s when an ICE agent stepped in front of her vehicle and said, ‘Stop.’ And then, point blank, shot her through her windshield.”

“CBS Evening News” airs weeknights at 6:30 p.m. ET on CBS.

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