• Podcaster Tim Pool: “I’m a 2A absolutist. I’m more 2A than all y’all combined. I have argued for the private ownership of nuclear and biological weapons.” 
• Podcaster Benny Johnson said there was “dark spiritual energy” during the 2020 election: “My wife swears that she saw a demon.” 
• Fox’s Jesse Watters praised Donald Trump for watching Fox News and doing what the people on TV tell him to do: “Kilmeade said send Homan to Minneapolis and an hour later Trump did it.” 

Last weekend, we witnessed another horrific instance of federal forces in Minneapolis killing an American citizen. Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, was shot dead by federal immigration forces while filming agents who were carrying out the Trump administration’s deportation agenda in the city. As we saw with the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this month, Fox News’ depraved initial response in the immediate aftermath of Pretti’s killing was to blame Democrats and Pretti himself. 

Following Pretti’s killing, Fox ran with Department of Homeland Security lies and valorized his killers. But by Sunday evening, things began to change. Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin published a lengthy report detailing internal dissent among his federal immigration enforcement sources regarding the narrative pushed by DHS leaders. After detailing the internal schism, Melugin said, “There is no indication Pretti was there to murder law enforcement, as videos appear to show he never drew his holstered firearm.” Other network personalities soon followed Melugin's lead, contradicting the network’s earlier spin and initial DHS claims. 

Pretti’s killing is a debacle for the Trump administration and its media supporters. In the days following his death, some right-leaning streamers and political podcasts began breaking with the administration and its die-hard loyalists in MAGA media. 

• Newsmax’s Senior Judicial Analyst Andrew Napolitano: “To me, their shooting is indefensible.” 
• Right-wing streamer Asmongold on Pretti’s shooting: “There’s literally no excuse for it.”
• Flagrant podcast host Andrew Schulz on federal agents: “They’re doing things that objectively — objectively, I don’t care which side of the aisle you’re on — objectively are unconstitutional.”  

Other right-wing media pundits, however, have taken a different tactic. In a noxious level of victim blaming, some pundits have been saying that Pretti deserved what happened to him, or justified the shooting by claiming Minneapolis is in the midst of an “insurgency” of “hardcore communists” and “jihadists.” 

As anti-ICE protests continued in Minneapolis this week, right-wing pundits have continued their demonization campaign against protesters, particularly women, and made their oft-repeated claim that there are “paid protesters and agitators.” Maybe most disturbingly, Chaya Raichik, who runs the social media account Libs of TikTok, has been doxxing ordinary working people, such as teachers, nurses, and school board members, for speaking out against federal immigration officials or expressing sympathy for Pretti. 

With all the bluster and spin happening, I want to highlight this simple fact: In the span of a month, two Americans were killed by federal immigration forces in Minneapolis. They were human beings who died doing what they thought was right. The right-wing campaign to demonize and blame Pretti for his own killing is a disgusting but predictable response from a media apparatus which usually stands in full support of Trump’s fascist agenda. However, this week we saw cracks forming in that foundation of support. 

• Podcaster Tim Pool blasted Trump for pulling Greg Bovino from Minneapolis (more on that below). Pool said, “Trump is a weak old man.” 
• Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has been under fire this week following Pretti’s killing. The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro criticized Noem, saying she has “not done a credit to the president as DHS secretary.” (Later in the week, he called for her to be replaced by Tom Homan). Meanwhile, Fox’s Laura Ingraham launched a vitriolic attack at “cowardly RINOs” calling for Noem’s to be fired.

Following the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of federal forces under Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, on January 26, Trump reassigned Bovino out of Minneapolis and replaced him with Border Czar Tom Homan. 

The move caused outrage among many right-wing media pundits, who said it “looks like surrender.” Fox, though, is attempting to spin Homan as the new, professional face of Trump’s mass deportation program, but all signs suggest the administration’s draconian policies will remain unchanged. 

Homan was the key architect of the first Trump administration’s so-called family separation policy, an immoral and inhumane practice that was a public relations nightmare to boot. Since then, Homan has made no secret of his view that “the bottom line is: every illegal alien is a criminal.” He has promised to use the “private sector” and to “deputize” citizens to help round up suspected undocumented immigrants. And he has repeatedly articulated a hard-line, zero tolerance attitude towards pro-immigrant organizers and activists. 

As the country turns on Trump’s deportation tactics, Fox may want to convince their audience that they’re selling a new product, but all signs suggest the leadership swap is nothing but slapping a different label on the same draconian approach.

• War Room host Steve Bannon called for Trump to “raise the temperature” in Minneapolis, saying, “You’re going to have to round up some 5-year-olds with their parents.” 
• Newsmax’s Greg Kelly compared Pretti to the BTK Killer and then said, “I can’t just pretend because you’re dead, you’re like the superior person.”

During a January 27 town hall event, Rep, Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was assaulted by a man who sprayed a liquid on her. In the days following the assault, however, right-wing media reacted by suggesting the attack was “suspicious” and “staged.” Of course the attack was not staged; the Department of Justice has already charged the alleged attacker. 

Pundits who spread these conspiracy theories were led by Donald Trump himself, who told ABC News that Omar “probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.” Right-wing media figures spread similar claims, suggesting it is “perfectly reasonable” to question whether Omar’s assault was “fake” or “staged.” 

Omar has been a target of right-wing media for years, with many pundits suggesting she should be deported to Somalia. Recently, Trump has called for an investigation into her finances after a Fox News host suggested her net worth had increased suspiciously. 

This week, U.S. Capitol Police reported that threats toward members of Congress, as well as their staff and families, “surged in 2025, with over 5,000 more incidents reported” than in 2024.