Believe Our Own Eyes And Counter Their Lies

As the White House smears and spreads disinformation, it’s up to us to set things right

I usually take Sunday off to spend all day with the babies. But like many of you, I suspect, I didn’t sleep well last night. I feel a strong need this morning to help set the record straight, especially in the face of a torrent of lies and smears by the Trump regime.

As you may have seen, immediately after the slaying of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis yesterday, the White House was out with outrageously false statements. Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller labeled Pretti as a “domestic terrorist” who “tried to assassinate federal enforcement.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem falsely alleged that Pretti “approached Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic gun” and claimed, without basis, that he had “arrived to inflict maximum damage and kill law enforcement.”

Greg Bovino, often the face on the street for the U.S. Border Patrol, baselessly claimed that Pretti was “in the scene actively impeding and assaulting law enforcement.” When confronted with the fact that Pretti was merely filming what was happening, Bovino said, “Let’s not free frame adjudicate this now.”

Sorry, but that’s exactly what we’re going to do today. Pretti and his grieving family deserve better than to have his name and memory tarnished by the regime’s objectively false claims and slanders.

The news outlet Bellingcat is well known for its forensic reconstructions based on video footage. As it noted in its assessment, Pretti approached federal agents not with a gun but with a camera.

Noem’s claim that Pretti had come to impede and assault law enforcement officers and to “inflict maximum damage and kill law enforcement” is directly contradicted by footage, taken from a vehicle parked right next to the killing and published by OSINTdefender on Twitter. It shows that Pretti sought not to attack officers but only to protect others. Here he is placing his body between the agents and the woman the agents were assaulting. His hands were up or in front of him, and he never assaulted any agents, even as they deployed pepper spray at close range directly into his face.

But what about the fact that Pretti had a gun on him? The footage shows that the gun was in its holster on his back for the entirety of the assault—until a federal agent removed it from him, after which another fired a shot into Pretti’s back. At the time of the first shot, Pretti was kneeling on the ground, arms in front of him.

Here is Bellingcat again with the key frames from the footage:

Here, an agent can be seen removing and retreating with Pretti’s gun moments before another agent shoots him, followed by nine other shots from multiple agents.

In this footage, you can see the agent who fired the first shot into Pretti’s back. (Warning: disturbing, view discretion advised.)

Here is a stabilized version of that same scene, now that we know which agents to watch.

From these, we can now form a complete picture. Brenna Perez, a video producer who earlier created a frame-by-frame analysis of the Renee Good murder, released yesterday a meticulous reconstruction of the Alex Pretti murder, splicing different video clips together with relevant commentary.

Based on what our own eyes can see, the lies and smears of the Trump White House, which continue apace, are both disgusting and dangerous.

The good news, if we can find any amid this violence and death, is that even some on the far right are not buying the White House’s twisted narrative. Extremist podcaster Tim Pool posted, “Appears the man may have been disarmed before being shot,” adding, “I don’t see Trump winning this one.”

The Libertarian Party’s official Twitter account has been amplifying condemnations of Pretti’s murder, including calls for Noem’s impeachment and removal.

Even the NRA, which is supposed to be there precisely to stop the government from disarming and killing citizens, finally came out with a statement condemning the claim that law enforcement is legally justified in shooting you simply because you approach them with a gun. (Pretti was licensed to carry his firearm, and Minnesota law permits people to have one on their person while in public.)

Many in the regime who had praised the vigilante violence of Kyle Rittenhouse during the Kenosha protests in 2020 have performed an about-face when people on the left arrive to a protest armed. Noem even argued, “I don’t know of any peaceful protestor who shows up with a gun”—as if Rittenhouse had not crossed state lines armed with an AR-15.

A final word about who Alex Pretti was. He worked as an ICU nurse at a veterans’ hospital. He honored and helped those who served our country. Here he can be seen speaking words of respect about one of his patients who had passed.

This is the man the regime wants us to believe was an assassin and a terrorist. But we won’t let that damnable smear stand. Instead, we continue the fight. We will honor Alex, and Renee, along with the many who have suffered and died at the hands of DHS as it pursues its hateful program of ethnic cleansing. The lies and slanders will not be what we remember of these brave souls. It will be their humanity, and the courage of their convictions, that will shine bright in our memories and help light the way forward.