Fox News Host Grills Trump DOJ Official On DHS Officials Claiming Alex Pretti Committed ‘Domestic Terrorism’: Did Your Colleagues Go ‘Too Far?’

A Fox News host grilled Deputy AG Todd Blanche over reports of internal frustrations about DHS officials calling Alex Pretti — the 37-year-old man shot dead Saturday in Minneapolis — a “domestic terrorist.”

In a pointed exchange on Monday’s Fox & Friends, co-host Griff Jenkins confronted Blanche about the rhetoric from DHS officials in the wake of Saturday’s shooting in Minneapolis. Jenkins cited reporting from his colleague, Bill Melugin — who posted on X that numerous officials have become “increasingly uneasy and frustrated” with the department’s messaging since the shooting.

“Here’s a quote from his reporting saying, ‘There is extreme internal frustration with DHS officials going on television and putting out statements to describe Alex Pretti as a domestic terrorist who was there to inflict maximum damage on federal agents or conduct a massacre, even after multiple videos emerged, to show that these claims appeared to be inaccurate,'” Jenkins said. He added, “Todd, I ask you based on the DOJ’s purview, do the actions of Alex Pretti amount to domestic terrorism?”

Blanche deflected.

“It’s an investigation, so I’m not going to prejudge what his actions were or not,” Blanche said. He then launched into an attack on political leadership in Minnesota. “There is one city where we see this outrage, one city, and that’s Minneapolis.”

But Jenkins quickly interjected.

“With all due respect, sir, my question is more pointed,” Jenkins said. “Do you believe your colleagues may have gone farther? You are an attorney … 18 U.S. Code 2331. It has a legal definition of domestic terrorism, and it doesn’t appear to most of the country that have watched the available video — and we’ll see if there’s body cam video. I’d love to know if that’s going to come out, if there was such a thing — but it does not appear to have met that definition of domestic terrorism. So I’m just sort of wondering how you in the DOJ are viewing whether your colleagues may have gone too far?”

“Look, I don’t think anybody thinks that they were comparing what happened on Saturday to the legal definition of domestic terrorism.”

At a Saturday news conference, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said, “When you perpetuate violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and perpetuate violence, that is the definition of domestic terrorism.”

Blanche added, “What we saw was a very violent altercation. And I am not going to prejudge the facts. You’re right, there’s a bunch of video that’s out there. There’s a lot of video that we haven’t seen yet in the minutes leading up to what happened and what happened afterwards. And you’re right — to the extent there’s body cam or other videos that witnesses are still providing to us. So I’m not describing it is as anything except for a tragedy.”

Watch above, via Fox News.

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