Fox News host Maria Bartiromo showed a rare moment of less-than-complete faith in the MAGA party line as she grilled Kash Patel on the “mistakes” being made by federal agents in Minneapolis.
The FBI director appeared on Sunday Morning Futures, and was questioned about what led Gregory Bovino’s agents to shoot 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti multiple times after the group of booted men had already wrestled him to the ground.
“As Secretary Noem said, no one who wants to be peaceful shows up at a protest with a firearm that is loaded with two full magazines. That is not a peaceful protest, and you do not get to touch law enforcement. You do that anywhere, this FBI’s going to be leading the charge to arrest those,” Patel argued.
“But how was he threatening Border Patrol? You’ve collected the evidence, you said, right? You have the handgun in your possession?” Bartiromo asked, with her interviewee affirming: “That’s right.”
The longtime Fox News personality didn’t seem sold by what she’d heard, asking again: “And how was he using that handgun in terms of threatening Border Patrol? What was the threat? He had his camera, right? He was filming it.”
Patel, who has become well known for posting details of active cases on his social media—some of which are later found to be false—took a different approach in his response.
After a brief pause, he said: “That’s something that I’ll let DHS and the prosecutors—because they are the ones investigating the case, I don’t want to stylize that evidence.”
Patel then turned the topic to lethal force, and stated: “But I trust the men and women on the ground, who are trained professionals, to use it when it’s absolutely necessary. And I trust Secretary Noem’s leadership, and DHS and HSI to do the right thing—as they’ve always done in these scenarios.”
Bartiromo seemed less focused on the blanket claims of faith in law enforcement, and asked another question about the particulars of Pretti’s case.
“Kristi Noem said the individual approached U.S Border Patrol officers with a nine millimeter semi-automatic handgun. Was the gun visible, or did Border Patrol see the gun after they shot him?
Patel brushed off the question, repeating: “Again, all those pieces of the investigation are being led by DHS and HSI, and I don’t want to comment on their ongoing investigation.”
The conversation was later turned to Patel celebrating the efforts of the FBI and DHS under “the amazing leadership of President Trump” in terms of countering crime. Surprisingly, Bartiromo stopped her guest in his tracks to suggest that the agencies might not be delivering as promised.
“I mean, director, somehow you’ve got to get together with the president’s detractors—whether it is on the Democrat side or not—to ensure that we don’t have mistakes like we’ve been seeing, so that we are actually seeing what you’re talking about,” she said.
Bartiromo hinted: “You’re talking about taking down people who deserve it and not, in fact, getting people who are in the middle of fire and in the middle of these operations.”
