During a Homeland Security Committee hearing this week, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the top Democrat on that committee and a longtime Trump-hating partisan who chaired the sham January 6 committee, referred to the killing of a National Guardsman in Washington, D.C., as “the unfortunate accident that occurred with the National Guardsman being killed.”
Thompson was questioning Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at the time, and she immediately challenged his disgusting characterization of the attack.
"You think that was an unfortunate accident?" she said.
Thompson stammered and tried to resume his questioning, but Noem pointed out the alleged gunman “shot our national guardsmen in the head,” and accurately described the shooting as “a terrorist attack."
The back and forth over his choice of words continued, with Thompson desperately trying to reclaim his time and get past his faux pas. However, he later doubled down, referring to the attack that left Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, dead as an “unfortunate situation.”
Those are his words. On the record.
🚨VILE: Dem Rep. Bennie Thompson just referred to the terrorist attack against two National Guardsmen in DC as an "unfortunate accident."
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) December 11, 2025
Noem: "You think that was an 'unfortunate accident'!? He shot our National Guardsmen in the head." pic.twitter.com/d8Bpt2xN4J
There was nothing accidental about what happened. On the day before Thanksgiving, a gunman targeted National Guardsmen who were patrolling in D.C. Beckstrom’s fellow Guardsman, Andrew Wolfe, 24, was also shot and remains hospitalized, fighting his way back amid hopeful signs of recovery.
This was a direct attack on American servicemembers in our nation’s capital, and Thompson had the audacity to call it an accident.
Clips of Thompson calling the shooting an accident went viral on social media, and naturally, Thompson ran to CNN to claim he “misspoke” and “made a mistake” when he referred to the murder as an accident.
Bennie Thompson is asked about his grotesque “unfortunate accident” National Guard shoot*ng comments.
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) December 12, 2025
CNN’s Kate Bolduan finally steps in to provide an assist and helps him figure out that he should say he “misspoke." pic.twitter.com/BxnyF9WHd5
The problem for him is simple: Everyone heard him the first time. His walk-back looks less like a clarification and more like damage control from a Democrat who realized he had revealed too much about how his side really views this tragedy.
This entire episode exposes a deeper moral rot inside the Democratic Party. Democrats have spent months attacking Trump for deploying the National Guard to help fight crime and enforce immigration laws in cities where Democrat leaders refuse to do their jobs. They hate that he used legitimate federal power to step in where local officials surrendered the streets. Some on the left even tried to twist this shooting into an indictment of Trump’s policy, as if the real problem was that our troops were there at all.
That outlook creates a perverse incentive. If they clearly condemn the attack, it could be seen by their base as condoning the deployments. If they lean into their politics, they still get credit for resisting Trump. Thompson’s language gave away which instinct came first. The politics came first. The human cost came second.
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Thompson made it clear what his objective was during the hearing. He didn’t care about Beckstrom’s death; he wanted to exploit the situation to use it to attack President Trump. He grilled Noem about the shooter’s immigration status and asylum approval, as if to steer the conversation into safer partisan territory. Of course, as she tried to explain the asylum approval process, which clearly implicated the Biden administration, Thompson once again got angry.
The reaction to an assassination-style shooting of our National Guardsmen should unite everyone. There should be no daylight between us on this. A young woman in uniform gave up Thanksgiving with her family to serve her country in Washington, D.C., and never made it home. Her colleague will carry scars from the attack for the rest of his life.
There should be no moral ambiguity on this issue. But, alas, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee reached first for language that downplayed the act itself. Then he tried to recast it as a slip of the tongue once the backlash hit. This is the same Bennie Thompson who treated half the country like domestic enemies during the January 6 circus and built his brand on hating Trump. He views everything through a partisan lens, including the murder of a National Guardsman.
When Democrats like Bennie Thompson reveal who they are with comments like this, we should believe them. Their first instinct in a moment of tragedy tells you far more than their cleanup act.
