The administration was in a race to control the narrative around the killing of Alex Pretti, even as videos emerged that contradicted the government’s account.
Not long after federal agents shot and killed a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident on Saturday, senior members of the Trump administration were ready with their conclusions about what had happened and who was to blame.
Stephen Miller, President Trump’s homeland security adviser, called the victim, Alex Pretti, who was filming Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis, a “domestic terrorist.” Gregory Bovino, the official in charge of Border Patrol operations, said Mr. Pretti was out to “massacre law enforcement.” The Department of Homeland Security said an agent had fired “defensive shots” because he was “fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers.”
Even as videos emerged that contradicted the government’s account, the Trump administration was in a race to control the narrative around the killing of Mr. Pretti, a registered nurse with no criminal record who was pinned down when immigration agents opened fire and killed him. The rush to blame Mr. Pretti and exonerate the immigration agents — even while officials were still gathering the facts — deviates entirely from the way law enforcement investigations are normally carried out.
But it also underscores what has become a pattern by Mr. Trump and top administration officials to justify an increasingly violent crackdown: immediately going on the offensive and demonizing the victim, often distorting the facts in the process.
On Sunday, Mr. Trump said Democrats were to blame for the killings, not federal agents.
His reasoning, which he laid out on social media, was that Democrats were not cooperating with the ICE operation in Minneapolis, which has created “dangerous circumstances for EVERYONE involved.”
Daniel Altman, a former Customs and Border Protection official who served in the Trump and Biden administrations, said presidents often tried to find political advantage in moments of crisis. But he said it undermined public confidence in the investigation process to make snap judgments about motive and blame.
