Blame game erupts over Trump team's false claim Alex Pretti sought "massacre"
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is under fire for issuing misleading and incendiary information that claimed immigration agents killed an armed Minnesota protestor Saturday because he wanted to "massacre" them.
- That language has now become a source of controversy in the Trump administration.
- White House officials are blaming Customs and Border Patrol for furnishing inaccurate information, while others are targeting Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and top Trump adviser, six sources with knowledge of the situation told Axios.
Why it matters: The episode illustrates the confusion that gripped the administration after the Saturday shooting death of Minnesota protester Alex Pretti. And it shows the influence of Miller, Trump's close and longest-serving political adviser whose dominion in the White House far exceeds his title.
Miller's power extends to de facto oversight of Noem, though she's a Cabinet secretary who technically outranks him.
- "Everything I've done, I've done at the direction of the president and Stephen," Noem told a person who relayed her remarks to Axios.
After Renee Good was killed members of the regime circled the wagons around a cohesive message. Namely, it was Good's fault (that effing lesbian) for being shot as she attempted to drive away from ICE agents. This, despite compelling video evidence that told a different story. No matter, the regime decided an investigation was not necessary and the officer who killed Good remained on the job in violation of protocol for such shootings.
The video evidence in the Pretti shooting leaves no ambiguity. After trying to protect a woman being shoved to the ground and peppered sprayed by federal officers Alex was pulled to the ground by those officers, subdued, disarmed, and shot 10 times while on his hands and knees. Ooopsie.
Even a regime that largely ignores public sentiment over what it is doing couldn't ignore the outrage this time. The spin and the lies have stopped working.
Harry Truman famously had a sign on his desk reading, "The buck stops here." Inside Repub circles that has never been true for trump, who takes responsibility for nothing because none is assigned. Not by the following. A first step in holding the regime accountable starts there. trump is the prez, federal agents are doing what he wants done, therefore the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti are ultimately his fault. The former GOP, now the POT, will never be able to heal itself until it makes that admission.
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