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What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future - The Right’s Minneapolis Outrage Machine

Slate Daily Feed

Slate

News, Business, Society & Culture

3.91.1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 January 2026

⏱️ 25 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The administration’s justification for their actions in Minneapolis owe a lot to the right-wing influencers—and they seem happy to keep this vicious cycle rolling onto California next. 


Guest: Will Sommer, journalist for the Bulwark.


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Transcript

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0:00.0

On Wednesday night, I found myself scrolling through social media, and my feed was full of pictures of a five-year-old boy named Liam Ramos in a Minneapolis suburb.

0:16.6

In the picture I kept seeing, Liam is standing outside by the rear of an SUV in this oversized blue hat with floppy bunny ears and a Spider-Man backpack.

0:30.6

He looks terrified. Someone, possibly an ICE agent, has a hand on his backpack.

0:37.1

School officials say Liam Ramos was riding home with his father when federal agents approached their car.

0:43.2

Family members say they didn't know where he was for nearly 24 hours.

0:48.2

But their lawyer confirms that the five-year-old is now being held at a detention facility in Texas.

0:54.1

I have a five-year-old boy. After scrolling

0:57.3

for a while, I went into his room and stood there in the dark just watching him sleep.

1:04.1

But what I was seeing is just my timeline. And if you follow a lot of right-wing influencers right

1:10.7

now, you are getting something

1:12.5

very different from Minneapolis. I asked Will Sumner from the bulwark to describe what they're

1:18.9

posting. They are filming, you know, accusing Somali Americans or Somali immigrants of various

1:25.5

kinds of fraud. They are, you know, showing the people who are protesting ice and, you know, trying to

1:31.0

portray them in a negative light.

1:32.6

So there's this real, just sort of a thriving industry of these personalities who go around

1:38.0

and often they kind of get in scuffles themselves.

1:41.2

And then, you know, there's this feedback between the Trump administration and them.

1:44.6

And so the Trump administration says, well, this city's out of control.

1:48.1

We have to crack down.

1:55.6

Like there's this video of people disrupting a church service because one of the pastors is the acting director of the St. Paul

2:07.8

ICE office.

2:12.9

You're actually, you're interviewing.

...

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