‘You Are Winning! Trump Is in Retreat!’ Rachel Maddow Cheers Protesters Amid Outrage Over Alex Pretti Killing

MS NOW host Rachel Maddow cheered on protesters of the violent crackdown by Trump deportation forces amid backlash over the Alex Pretti killing, telling them “You are winning!” and that President Donald Trump “is in retreat!”

Trump’s initial reaction to the shooting of Pretti was to lash out and blame the deceased and Democratic leaders in a lengthy social media rant. But as the outrage grew, the president pumped the brakes a little, and by Monday, was striking a conciliatory tone with Democrats in Minnesota.

On Monday night’s edition of MS NOW’s The Rachel Maddow Show, the host opened her show with reporting on the ouster of Greg Bovino from the Minneapolis operation and the backtracking by Trump:

RACHEL MADDOW: “Greg Bovino loses his job.” Quote, “Greg Bovino has been removed from his role as Border Patrol commander at large and will return to his former job in El Centro, California, where he is expected to retire soon, according to a Homeland Security official and two people with knowledge of the change.

Bovino`s sudden demotion is the clearest sign yet that the Trump administration is reconsidering its most aggressive tactics after the killing Saturday of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents under Bovino`s command.

Nick Miroff reports, quote, “Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her close adviser Corey Lewandowski, who were Bovino`s biggest backers at homeland security, are now also at risk of losing their jobs.” Miroff, citing two sources to advance that story about Kristi Noem and Lewandowski potentially losing their jobs as well. Again, reporting from — reporter Nick Miroff. He`s formerly of The Washington Post, but he`s now at The Atlantic.

Tonight, the Homeland Security Department spokesperson said that Bovino, quote, has not been relieved of his duties. Chief Gregory Bovino has not been relieved of his duties, which sounds like pushback. But if you think about it, it doesn`t exactly answer the question.

I mean, that assertion that he has not been relieved of his duties might, in fact, be quite consistent with the reporting in The Atlantic that Mr. Bovino has been sent home to California, where he is expected to retire soon. That could also be true. While tonight he has not been relieved of his duties.

I don`t know. We don`t — we don`t know what heads will roll or exactly in which direction they shall roll. We shall see. But clearly, President Trump and the Trump administration are in retreat on what had been a violent occupation. I think it`s fair to say, of a major American city that they essentially hoped to be the front page news headline that everybody remembered about the Trump administration at this time. At the start of Trump`s second year in his second term in office, they went big with this on their own terms.

Nobody asked for this. Nobody put them up to it. They decided to launch this in order to show off what they could do. And now they are in full retreat, with it being viewed both as a practical debacle and a moral debacle, and they are paying a considerable political price for it. If you were one of millions of Americans who protested ICE out of Minneapolis, you should know tonight you are winning this thing, and it`s worth understanding the power of what you have done.

President Trump today and tonight held conciliatory phone calls with the Democratic governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, and the Democratic mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey. Both of those elected officials were demonized by Trump and by the Trump administration up until, like 30 seconds ago. I mean, once Trump started criticizing both of those elected officials, his U.S. Department of Justice naturally put both of them under federal investigation of some kind.

Since that how — that`s how federal law enforcement works now.

Watch above via MS NOW’s The Rachel Maddow Show.

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