CNN’s Daniel Dale Goes After Trump Admin’s ‘Torrent of Incendiary Claims’ in Brutal Fact Check of Alex Pretti Shooting

AP Photo/Ronda Churchill

CNN’s Daniel Dale on Sunday published a lengthy takedown of the Trump administration’s numerous inaccurate claims about the killing of Alex Pretti.

Pretti, a 37-year-old VA nurse, was shot multiple times and killed by ICE agents on Saturday during an altercation in Minneapolis. Countless figures from President Donald Trump’s White House, including key members of the Department of Homeland Security, have pointed to the fact that Pretti was armed with a handgun on his waist to make the claim that he intended to “massacre” the agents and that they were acting in self-defense. In the available footage of the incident, Pretti’s handgun — which he was legally permitted to carry — appeared to be removed by an agent in the scuffle. It wasn’t until after Pretti was disarmed that the shooting started.

In Dale’s piece, he noted how DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s rhetoric shifted as more evidence emerged. On Saturday, for example, she accused Pretti of attacking agents. The next day, however, she was more careful with her words.

Dale continued:

Noem used noticeably softer language in a Fox News interview on Sunday morning than she had Saturday. This time, instead of saying Pretti “attacked” law enforcement, she said Pretti was “laying hands on law enforcement.”

Dale also went after the administration’s narrative that Pretti brandished his weapon before the shooting. Based on the available footage, Pretti merely had his phone in his hand as he recorded the agents. His other hand was empty, and the gun never left his waistband until it was removed by agents after he was tackled to the ground.

Dale added:

Notably, administration officials would not repeat or defend Noem’s “brandishing” claim in interviews on Sunday morning.

When [FBI Director Kash Patel] was asked on Fox how Pretti was supposedly using the gun to threaten Border Patrol given that Pretti was only holding a phone, Patel did not explain, saying he would defer to “DHS and the prosecutors – because they are the ones investigating that case.” Asked in an interview on NBC whether Pretti brandished a gun at any point, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche also declined to make a firm comment, saying “there is obviously an investigation that’s ongoing.”

Pretti’s family has called out the Trump administration for its “sickening lies” about him, calling the statements “reprehensible and disgusting.”

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