While the internet rallied around the victim, Giudice took a hardline stance that left her co-hosts and fans speechless.

“Listen to me, and listen good,” Giudice said, her voice serious and devoid of her usual “love, love, love” levity. “I saw the news. I saw the Mayor yelling. But let’s be real here. If a police officer or an agent tells you to get out of the car, you get out of the car. You don’t put it in reverse. You don’t drive away. When you do that, you turn the car into a weapon.”

Addressing the “Elephant in the Room”

The most shocking aspect of Giudice’s commentary was her willingness to bring up her ex-husband, Joe Giudice, who was deported by the very same agency she was defending. Many assumed she would harbor a lifelong grudge against ICE.

Giudice addressed the irony head-on, using her family’s trauma to validate her “law and order” perspective.

“Everyone knows what my family went through,” Giudice said passionately. “ICE came for Joe. They took the father of my four beautiful dorters [daughters] away. It was the hardest thing we ever went through. I cried for years. But guess what? Joe didn’t run. We didn’t fight the agents in the street. We fought in court.”

She continued, doubling down on her stance: “We paid our price. I went to jail. Joe went to jail and then he had to leave the country. We followed the rules, even when it hurt. So when I see someone trying to run away from the law, I don’t have sympathy for that action. You gotta respect the badge, or there is chaos. The agents want to go home to their families too.”

Clashing with the Mayor

Giudice also took aim at Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, criticizing his directive for ICE to leave the city.

“Who is this Mayor to say federal agents can’t be there?” she asked incredulously. “That’s not how America works. You can’t just pick and choose. If you break the law, there are consequences. My family knows consequences better than anyone. It’s sad that lady died, it’s terrible, but you can’t blame the agent for being scared when a car is moving.” 

A Fanbase Divided

The backlash to Giudice’s comments was swift and volatile. For a fanbase that supported her through her legal battles, hearing her side with the agency that deported her children’s father was a jarring pill to swallow.

“Teresa defending ICE is the plot twist of the century,” one user wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Joe is literally in the Bahamas because of them, and she’s saying ‘Respect the badge’? This is Stockholm Syndrome.”

Others accused her of being out of touch. “Teresa, this woman was killed for fleeing. Comparing that to Joe’s tax fraud case is insane. This is a bad take, Tre.”

However, a segment of her conservative following praised her consistency. “Say what you want about Teresa, but she owns her mistakes,” one comment read on her Instagram. “She served her time and respects the system even after it burned her. That takes strength.”

The “New” Teresa

This pivot to a “hard truth” commentator marks a new era for Giudice. Usually known for family drama and flipping tables, she is now flipping the script on public expectations. By leveraging her own painful history with the federal government to defend law enforcement, Teresa Giudice has once again proven that she is the most unpredictable woman on television—and she refuses to apologize for it.