Fox’s Trey Gowdy Wonders Why Alex Pretti Is Being Demonized for Carrying a Gun After Kyle Rittenhouse Was Celebrated for It
Fox News anchor Trey Gowdy said the shooting death of Alex Pretti has led some conservatives to ask why the Trump administration called out Pretti for carrying a gun after “celebrating” Kyle Rittenhouse for doing the same thing in 2020.
Gowdy said there is a double standard in how some right-wingers are talking about the shootings during an appearance on America’s Newsroom on Monday morning.
“I think what frustrates people [is] you remember Kyle Rittenhouse and how he was made a hero on the right. I’m sure there are people on the conservative side who are saying ‘wait a minute, you mean you can’t take a firearm to a protest? Because you were just celebrating a guy for doing it a couple of years ago,'” Gowdy said.
Gowdy continued, “Alex Pretti’s firearm was lawfully being carried. It is lawful to carry a gun in Minnesota. He never brandished it. He didn’t point it at the cops.”
Rittenhouse shot and killed three people in Wisconsin amid the Black Lives Matter riots and protests of 2020; he argued the shootings were in self-defense and he was acquitted in 2021.
Gowdy’s comments come after Pretti was shot and killed during an altercation with Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis on Saturday. Immediately after, Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino said Pretti intended to “massacre” immigration agents because he was carrying a 9mm gun; DHS Secretary Kristi Noem similarly said Pretti wanted to “kill” agents.
But critics have said clips of the shooting do not back up what the officials said. And Fox News congressional correspondent Bill Melugin reported on Sunday that a number of immigration agents were “increasingly uneasy” and “frustrated” with how Bovino and Noem characterized the shooting.
Gowdy told Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino that Republicans and Democrats have both “dropped the ball” when it comes to commenting on the Pretti shooting. He added it was unclear if Pretti was reaching for his gun after being pepper sprayed.
“We certainly should not be labeling him as being a domestic terrorist who was going to execute cops,” Gowdy said. “There is no evidence to support that.”
Watch above via Fox News.
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