It wasn't a scrum. He was murdered. We [clears throat] have to start using We all watched it.
We watched him try to protect another woman. Maga is completely losing it, twisting herself into Olympic level mental gymnastics to justify the latest shocking actions by ICE in Minnesota. And we're going to watch clips from a fiery panel on Abby Phillips CNN show where I'll also share my take on the situation.
Let's dive in and check it out together. In the Trump era, we are used to the brash and unapologetic style of the president and his allies. Never back down, never apologize.
But this time, the gaslighting is not working. After the deadly ICE shooting of another American citizen in the streets, there's an obvious Uturn being made tonight by this White House. The controversial Border Patrol chief that has been on the ground has now been sidelined.
And tonight, DHS has suspended his social media accounts. And in his place, Border Patrol or Border Zar Isar Tom Hman, who reportedly disagreed with some of the more controversial tactics, will be sent to Minneapolis. Also, the president's tone has softened toward Minnesota Democrats.
He's saying now that he had productive calls with both the governor and with the mayor today. The reason for this is pretty obvious. The videos of the shooting of Alex Prey completely contradict the administration's initial accounts of what happened.
Steven Miller was quick to call Prey quote, "A would-be assassin and a domestic terrorist who tried to murder law enforcement. " And here's how Christy Gnome and Gregory Bevino characterized the incident just minutes after the shooting. An individual approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun.
The officers attempted to disarm this individual, but the armed suspect reacted violently. Fearing for his life and for the lives of his fellow officers around him, an agent fired defensive shots. The agents attempted to disarm the individual, but he violently resisted.
This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement. This individual went and impeded their law enforcement operations, attacked those officers, had a weapon on him and multiple dozens of rounds of ammunition, wishing to inflict harm on these officers coming brandishing like that and impeding their work that they were doing. Now, just to recap, according to them, a quote wouldbe assassin approached and attacked those agents, brandished a 9mm gun, looking to inflict quote maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.
Now, I want you to tell me if that's what you see when you watch this. the people. The is wrong with you?
Honestly, [screaming] the did you just do? [screaming] What the did you just do? What the?
So, as public opinion turns dramatically, what if this tragedy had not been caught on video? Where would we be right at this moment, Congressman? And do you think that this is a moment maybe rare in the Trump era where you see uh a majority of Americans standing up and saying, "No, you can't lie to us.
" Well, I think that this is MAGA insanity. uh they want us to believe something different than what we see with our very own eyes. Uh and but this is uh some of the behavior uh that has been happening in the barios across the country uh where including uh American citizens are being detained.
170 American citizens have been detained. I visited four kids in Mter Ree, Mexico, including a 10-year-old little girl with a brain tumor uh that are out there and they're US citizens. So, this is finally hit home and people are seeing it for what it is and I think there's a backup but is a bit too late.
[clears throat] How much I say I'm not I'm not the Trump administration because of how they handled this. Well, the fish things from the head down. I'm not forgiving Bevino and Gnome, but I'm not shocked by this when you have a president look us in the eye and say, "Oh, January 6, they were just taking a tour of the capital.
" Yeah. Then they went out and had lunch. They've been taught that they can say anything and get away with it.
Oh, wait a minute. Be elected president. So, what ends up happening?
They come out, they get a script, they know their boss is going to like the script, and and we're off and running. And now this one blew up in their face because a man gets shot 10 times. And people are now protesting in the streets.
And I don't know about you, but if you look at history, this feels like feels like the Vietnam War protests. And that's what that's when Nixon finally started to get the message in Johnson that this is a really strong point that Paul Mercurio makes. And it's something I've thought about a lot because when you go back to what happened at Kent State, the nation was horrified and people still talk about it today as a huge moment in history that may have turned the tide against the Vietnam War.
But now we're seeing brutality happening every day. And I've wondered and talked to friends about whether a new Kent state would have the same impact on people. And sadly, it has taken several events like this to open people's eyes, like the Renee Good shooting a few weeks ago that felt like a turning point.
And now with Alex Prey, it seems a majority of people are finally saying enough is enough. Even some on the right are starting to admit that this isn't what they signed up for, though some are still twisting logic and doing mental gymnastics. And with Abby Phillip showing the video, we've seen so many angles from different people and never see Alex Prey brandishing a gun despite what the people in this administration are claiming.
And the gun they showed a picture of wasn't even his. It was just a stock image they found online. A couple of um really pointed editorials, the New York Post says, "However noble the mission it is to get rid of the worst of the worst, the broad support for it is now ebbing fast.
Mr president. The American people didn't vote for these scenes and you can't continue to order them to not believe their lying eyes. The Wall Street Journal editorial board seems to suggest that either many ICE agents aren't properly trained or they are so on edge as they face opposition in the streets that they are on a hair trigger.
Either way, this calls for rethinking how ICE conducts itself, especially in Minnesota as tensions build. It isn't just about Alex Prey. I think what these editorials point to is questions now being raised, including on Capitol Hill, about ISIS tactics.
That's what these protesters have been protesting about to begin with. Um, I found Secretary Nome's comments on Alex Prey to be unforgivable. Everything I've heard about this person suggests that he was a wonderful human being.
And to desecrate the dead like that, utterly, utterly unjustifiable. and I don't see how a person should be allowed to remain in public service after lying so blatantly to the American people. Now, that said, it's very clear that the president is on a very different page.
He refused to say that he supports the ICE agent in the shooting until we have more information. He wants to know what's on the footage, which I do as well, and I hope that that gets exposed. Um, that said, um, Alex Prey was obviously not murdered.
He was in a scrum that ended in a bad shoot. And I think this is a moment that we should all try to find our way back to each other as Americans and come off the edge. And I I'm really hoping we can find that common ground here because I think that this is really a moment where the president himself is saying we've gone too far in our separate corners and we have to find a way to work together.
And I was so pleased to hear that he had these great conversations with Fry and with Walls. I guess I mean I I hear what you're saying about Gnome, but on that last point about um how you're saying he wasn't murdered. I think a lot of people disagree.
I think one of the big issues that a lot of Americans have with how this is handled is this idea that the conduct of the ICE agent can just be chocked up to a mistake and that there are no consequences. And it wasn't. And what are the lessons then for anybody else in that situation?
I think there are probably a lot of people who would say it's not just a mistake. There's a lot of poor decision-m maybe even neglig negligent decision-m and that should be he can't walk back. He being the president can't walk back what he's already to your point earlier what he actually started.
They've lost the plot. The plot was deportation. The plot was to get rid of violent immigrants who were taking jobs and harming people in this country, etc.
The the plot wasn't to kill American citizens. He was murdered. It wasn't a scrum.
He was murdered. We have to start using the word. No, it we all watched it.
We watched him try to protect another woman. Yes. and in the process of him trying to protect another protester was shot while he was being arrested for having So I'm not going to argue that with you but the point of the matter is I'm not I'm not we're not doing this we're not lying we're not lying we're not lying this is a manifestation we're not lying today one second they lost the plot I was I was still talking I was still talking let finish the reality is is that we've lost the plot he said that what they would do what these ICE agents were supposed to do they are not doing they are intimidating ing people.
They are scaring people. They are bullying people because they have been told to do that. Gnome got up and lied.
Bondi sent a ransom note. We'll get to all that later. Everyone did what they had been told to do.
This is the result of what they had been told to do. To to that point, it's the result also of Donald Trump's policies. That's what we're saying about what Donald Trump is doing and saying right now.
They are carrying out what he ordered. And if he didn't order it, correct? Who did?
He's the president. He can't tell. He didn't know.
3,000 federal agents in a city of less than 500,000 people. By comparison, Chicago is 3 million people. There are more ICE agents in Minneapolis than anywhere in the continental United States right now.
There is something there's something that's happening about that particular thing. Abby, I was I visited I visited Chicago and and Minnesota. Uh and what I see there is a a cultural of aggressiveness and violence in the agency.
Uh what what makes an agent shoot a guy that's down in that fashion murder him? It is a culture of violence that has let me let Arthur respond. I I just I want to talk about the law.
That's okay. Okay. So, um, for about this particular incident, believe it or not, the federal law about a federal officer discharging his or her weapon and killing someone is actually stricter than the state law.
The circumstances have to be so severe, the the threshold of what a officer, a a federal officer has to prove. Like there was no other options. There was no choices.
either that that officer or someone else was about to be killed or seriously phys physically injured. In state law, even Minnesota, there are other exceptions, but a federal law enforcement officer is really under the DOJ policy only supposed to discharge their weapons under the most. There's no other choice.
Now, I'm probably about to disqualify myself to be his criminal defense attorney if I get that phone call from that particular ICE agent. I don't think from what we have seen it is going to rise to that level. I don't think that it's going to be credible.
Even if he says I reasonably believed he was reaching for that gun and he was going to kill one of my fellow officers. I don't believe once everything gets broken down it's going to show that. But Abby, there's another problem here.
The other problem is the ICE supervisors would not let the local authorities in to do a regular crime scene to preserve a crime scene to do their to do their regular uh to do their regular investigation. Great point here from Arthur Adala. And then you had Greg Beavino who looks like he's being set up as the fog guy for the administration saying they wouldn't release the name of the agent because that would be doxing which is absolute nonsense.
These agents work for us. And if the Democrats ever regain control, at the very least, ICE should be defunded. But minimally, they should enforce that every agent wears a badge with their name and number.
And no more hiding behind anonymity to commit heinous acts and then quietly get transferred elsewhere without consequences. And going back to Carrie Champion talking about them losing the plot and Batya Sargon twisting logic to claim this was just a scrum. The rest of the country clearly saw something very different because the vast majority agree this was a murder.
And what drives me crazy is that Arthur Adala points out this didn't look like self-defense. And the Minneapolis police chief highlighted how many violent criminals they arrested last year without killing anyone. So, anytime a MAGA or far-right person tries to excuse this as a split-second decision, my response is that our police manage to arrest real violent criminals, terrorists, and even mass murderers, sometimes in shootouts, without killing them.
So, spare me the excuses because in these cases, people like Renee Good, Alex Prey, and others killed by ICE were not hardened criminals. They were just protesting. Yet Batya Anger Sargon tries to play both sides by saying it's terrible, but Trump doesn't support it.
While Abby Phillip and others make clear that these are Trump's policies, he encourages them. And now it's backfiring on him politically, threatening him and Republicans in the midterms. And of course, Trump does what he always does, throwing people under the bus and blaming those he hired, repeating patterns from his first administration.
So, in my opinion, Trump is fully complicit, wants this violence, and yet it's blowing up in his face. And honestly, I can't see how anyone can do the mental gymnastics to defend what ICE did over the weekend. But pundits like Bacha Anger Sargon will keep appearing on Abby Phillips show trying anyway.
