Trump Administration Tries to Control Minneapolis Shooting Narrative, and Winter Storm Shatters Records
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From The New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Monday, January 26th. Here's what we're covering. The second fatal shooting by federal agents in Minneapolis has kicked off what's become a new pattern from the Trump administration, of officials immediately going on the offensive, demonizing the victim, and often distorting the facts of what happened. On Saturday morning, Alex Preddy, a Minneapolis resident who worked as an ICU nurse at the VA, had gathered with a small group of protesters near where federal agents were operating. These kinds of scenes have become common in Minneapolis and across the country. Demonstrators opposed to the administration's aggressive immigration enforcement come to blow whistles or record on their phones.
Videos show Preddy stepped between a woman and an agent who was pepper spraying her. He was then pepper sprayed, and a group of agents piled onto him. They pinned him down and appeared to pull a handgun off of Preddy's hip before agents opened fire, killing him. Videos show Preddy, who had a permit to carry a firearm, never drew his weapon. This looks like a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem immediately claimed Preddy assaulted the officers.
You do not get to attack law enforcement officials in this country without any repercussions.
That was echoed by the head of the FBI, Kash Patel.
The suspect put himself in that situation. The victims are the Border Patrol agents there.
And by a senior Border Patrol official, Gregory Bovino. Stephen Miller, one of President Trump's top advisers, went further, calling Preddy a would-be assassin and a domestic terrorist. Administration officials made similar claims, with no evidence, about Renee Good, who was killed in her car by an ICE agent in Minneapolis earlier this year.
I'm rejecting the rush to judgment within 15 minutes of this, which they did last time. They're telling you not to trust your eyes and ear, not to trust the facts that you're seeing in front of them.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said he had called the White House to demand that the state handle the investigation into Preddy's death, saying the federal government cannot be trusted. Despite that, state authorities say they've been cut out again, like they were after Good's killing. Over the weekend, they took the extraordinary measure of getting an emergency court order to bar federal officials from destroying any evidence. Still, they say they haven't received basic facts from the government, like the identities of the agents who opened fire. In Washington, meanwhile, the uproar over Preddy's killing could lead to a partial government shutdown at the end of the week. The Senate was set to vote on legislation that funds a broad range of government programs.
But some key Democrats now say they're opposed to it, since it includes over $60 billion for DHS, including $10 billion specifically for ICE.
I hate shutdowns. I'm one of the people that helped negotiate the solution to the last, the end of the last shutdown. But I can't vote for a bill that includes ICE funding under these circumstances.
Senator Angus King, an independent from Maine, where federal agents have also launched a ramped-up immigration enforcement operation, said on CBS yesterday that he shared Democrats' concerns and that ICE funding should be voted on separately.
Let's have an honest negotiation, put some guardrails on what's going on, some accountability, and that would solve this problem.
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