Rogue Republican Senator Rand Paul has criticized the Trump administration’s controversial ICE operations in Minneapolis during a 60 Minutes sit-down.
Paul, who is the chair of the Homeland Security Committee and who has scheduled a hearing in Minneapolis for Feb. 12, told reporter Scott Pelley that he “saw no evidence” for Kristi Noem’s claims that Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old ICU nurse who was shot and killed by Border Patrol agents on Jan. 24, was a terrorist.
“I saw a man that was retreating,” Paul said. “I mean, he went to the middle of the street. He didn’t even obstruct traffic. He let a car go through. As the agents advanced on him, he retreated to the side of the street. A woman is violently pushed to the ground, and he turns to help her, and that’s when he is grabbed from behind. I saw no evidence of him assaulting the police.”
Noem and department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin had both used the term “domestic terrorist” to describe Pretti in the days following his death, sparking a backlash that was so severe that even the White House sought to distance itself from their rhetoric.
“I have not heard the president characterize Mr Pretti in that way,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said when asked whether the president agreed with the “terrorist” label. “However, I have heard the president say he wants to let the facts and the investigation lead itself.”
Asked by Pelley whether Noem, who will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Mar. 3, should be fired, Paul said, “I think we have to get through our hearing February 12th, and I think we have to see what the people who work for her say.”
“My advice to them, if they’re watching and they come to testify, is if you come in and you’re going to justify that this man was aggressively assaulting your police officers. That cannot be acceptable, and that’s why they’re lacking in trust.”
Pelley also asked Paul about statements made by other senior Trump officials, including top Trump aide Stephen Miller, who called Pretti a “would-be assassin,” FBI Director Kash Patel, who made incorrect claims about Pretti’s right to carry a gun, and Gregory Bovino’s assertion that Pretti was looking to “do maximum damage” to law enforcement.
“It sounds like terrible judgment,” Paul said of their statements. “I mean, terrible conclusions, incorrect conclusions, stating things that no one else believes. You can lie to your heart’s content if there’s no video. But the video doesn’t support what they’re saying.”
“You seem to be saying trust is broken,” Pelley replied.
“Without question,” Paul responded.
The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Homeland Security for comment. When contacted for comment, the White House referred the Daily Beast to the president’s past comments supporting an investigation into Pretti’s death.
“We’re doing a big investigation. I want to see the investigation. I’m going to be watching over it. I want a very honorable and honest investigation — I have to see it myself.”
While Paul said that he disagreed with some of the protestors’ methods, telling Pelley that he would encourage his own children to participate in primary elections rather than yelling at law enforcement, it is ultimately not illegal to protest.
Paul, a libertarian senator from Kentucky, has previously butted heads with the Trump administration, including when he declined to vote for the president’s “Big Beautiful Bill” and was excluded from a Rose Garden Club lunch for Republican senators as a result.
Paul has also issued warnings in response to the president’s repeated threats to seize control of Greenland, arguing that Trump’s saber-rattling could have the opposite effect.
“Let’s say you wanted to buy Greenland—and I’m not disputing that that might be something we might want,” the 63-year-old Kentucky senator said on ABC News’ This Week. “You don’t get there by angering and denigrating the people who live there and saying, ‘We’re going to march the Marines in and take it if you don’t sell it to us.’ It doesn’t make them very willing to sell to us.”
“If your goal is somehow we’re going to rattle the saber, then they’re going to sell it to us, I think it’s having the opposite effect. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find someone in Greenland for it, but you’d also be hard-pressed to find somebody in Washington who’s for a military invasion on either side of the aisle.”
He has also expressed concern about the president’s push for red states to redraw their congressional districts to benefit Republican candidates, telling Meet the Press host Kristen Welker in December that his strategy could trigger political violence.
“I think there is the potential that when people feel they have no representation, that they are disenfranchised, that it can lead and might lead to violence in our country.”
Paul joins his fellow Republican senators Thom Tillis and Lisa Murkowski in criticizing the Trump administration’s actions in Minneapolis, though Tillis and Murkowski both went a step further, telling reporters that Noem should either resign or be fired.
“What she’s done in Minnesota should be disqualifying,” Tillis said. “She should be out of a job. I mean, really. It’s just amateurish. It’s terrible. It’s making the president look bad on policies that he won on.”
