Former Rep. Billy Long apologized to lawmakers for a private joke he made to former House colleagues saying Iceland would be the “52nd state” with him as its governor.

Appearing Thursday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, President Donald Trump’s pick to serve as ambassador to the Arctic nation moved to clean up a diplomatic mess of his own making.

“It was totally inappropriate,” Long told senators, describing the remark as an attempt at humor that did not land well. “I just hope that the people in Iceland will give me a second chance to make a first impression.”

Long’s private joke on the House floor, first reported by Blue Light News, prompted minor diplomatic issues amid tense relations between the U.S. and Iceland as Trump seeks to take control of nearby Greenland, a Danish territory. Icelanders also launched a petition to their foreign, minister, Katrín Gunnarsdóttir to reject Long as ambassador.

“We want [Katrín Gunnarsdóttir] to reject Billy Long as ambassador to Iceland and call for the United States to nominate another man, who will show Iceland and Icelanders more respect,” the petition read, garnering thousands of signatures.

Long later apologized for the remark, telling Alaska-based news site Arctic Today that he was aware of the reaction in Iceland.

“There was nothing serious about that, I was with some people, who I hadn’t met for three years, and they were kidding about Jeff Landry being governor of Greenland and they started joking about me and if anyone took offense to it, then I apologize,” Long said.

The president has also mused about making Canada the 51st state.

Trump nominated Long to replace former Ambassador Carrin Patman. Long represented Missouri’s 7th Congressional District for six terms and briefly served as IRS commissioner last year.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison told senators Thursday that federal law enforcement agencies are still blocking state and local authorities from participating in the investigations into the shootings of two U.S. citizens by immigration agents in Minneapolis.

“We haven’t had any cooperation up until now, which is very unusual, because in prior cases where there’s been a federal and state interest in a crime, we’ve seen collaboration between federal and state authorities,” Ellison told lawmakers on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Federal agents shot and killed two Americans — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — just days apart amid public protests over a major expansion of federal immigration enforcement in Minneapolis in December and January.

Ellison said that in the case of the shooting of 37-year-old Good in early January, state officials still haven’t had any access to the car she was driving when ICE officers shot and killed her, or the bullet casings.

Ellison said federal officials are not investigating the shootings and added: “We still haven’t received any access to the evidence that is involved in that case. … But we’re with good faith hoping that things will change.”

The FBI declined to comment. The Justice and Homeland Security Departments did not respond to requests for comment.

Ellison’s comments Thursday follow earlier protests from Minnesota officials that they were not being included in the federal investigations that followed the Good shooting. In the immediate aftermath of the killing, prosecutors had begun investigating Good’s widow as opposed to the officers, though that probe appears to have stopped after federal prosecutors resigned in protest.

Meanwhile, White House border czar Tom Homan said Thursday that the surge of thousands of immigration officers into Minneapolis will soon come to an end.

Democrats on the Homeland Security Committee said federal investigators need to be more transparent.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said he was “really concerned that the failure to provide this evidence” and collaborate with local law enforcement “in fact, amounts to a cover up.”

Sen. Jacky Rosen will introduce a resolution Thursday designed to put the Senate on record opposing the prospect of President Donald Trump granting a pardon or clemency to Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein who is currently in prison.

The Nevada Democrat, in a statement first shared with Blue Light News, said she wanted to “make sure the U.S. Senate sends a clear message to the White House that a convicted sex trafficker of minors should not receive any clemency.”

“If Leader Thune won’t bring this up for a recorded vote, I’ll do everything I can to try to bring this up for unanimous consent, as it’s my sincere hope we can all agree Ghislaine Maxwell should serve out her full sentence,” Rosen added.

Absent getting Republicans to allow a vote on her resolution, Rosen is discussing whether to try to approve it through a unanimous consent agreement after the Senate returns from next week’s scheduled recess.

Adoption would require an agreement from all 100 senators, however. And while there are Republicans who have clamored for more transparency in the Epstein case and accountability for Epstein’s co-conspirators, the measure would likely face at least one GOP objection. Though the Senate quickly cleared legislation last year to force the release of the Epstein files, Senate Republicans have batted down related follow-up efforts on the floor.

Though the resolution would be nonbinding, it would make the Senate’s official position against a pardon or clemency for Maxwell, which Republicans could see as boxing in Trump if he chooses that route.

The president has not ruled it out, and Rosen’s forthcoming resolution is expected to note that the president has refused to rule it out. It also is likely to quote Trump saying, in 2025, he is “allowed to do it, but it’s something [he has] not thought about.”

Maxwell’s attorneys have said his client will only testify under oath in exchange for clemency. Making good on that position, Maxwell invoked her Fifth Amendment right earlier this month when she appeared over video in a deposition, in compliance with a congressional subpoena, before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.