Gavin Newsom slapped Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino with a new nickname while torching his justification for the deadly shooting of nurse Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents.
Bovino claimed on CNN Sunday that Pretti, 37, was “impeding and assaulting” law enforcement when multiple masked federal agents gunned him down in a Minneapolis street on Saturday.
Anchor Dana Bash shot back in response, “He wasn’t impeding it, he was filming it, which is a legal thing to do in the United States of America.”
Bovino doubled down and said “de-escalation techniques” had failed.
Referring to Bovino as “Gestapo Greg,” Newsom, 58, ripped the border patrol commander’s excuse for the killing on X.
“Gestapo Greg says filming ICE agents with your cell phone is assault and justifies them shooting you in cold blood,” the California governor’s press office wrote.
Newsom also slammed Bovino’s assertion that the “victims” in the situation were the Border Patrol agents, and that Pretti was a “suspect” who “put himself in that situation.”
“Disgusting!” Newsom wrote.
Bovino told Bash that the agents involved in Pretti’s killing are still working and not on administrative leave.
“Absolutely unacceptable,” Newsom wrote in response. “They shot an American in cold blood!”
Newsom’s new nickname for Bovino lands amid accusations that the commander—known for wearing a long, SS-style trench coat—is playing dress-up as a Nazi.
While speaking in Davos, Switzerland, last week, Newsom said Bovino was dressed as though he “literally went on eBay and purchased SS garb,” The Hill reported.
The aggressive tactics deployed in President Donald Trump’s deportation operation in Minneapolis, where an ICE agent killed Renee Good just over two weeks ago, have also drawn increasing comparisons to those of the Gestapo, Adolf Hitler’s brutal secret police in Nazi Germany.
“People disappearing, literally no due process,” Newsom said in Davos, according to The Hill. “Windows being smashed. Seat belts on being literally just cut off. People dragged in the streets, kids, separated from families, knocking on doors, racially profiling American citizens.”
The governor accused the Trump administration of embracing fascism and authoritarianism back in October, after the Department of Homeland Security posted a promo video featuring Bovino in his black trench coat.
“If you think the calls of fascism and authoritarianism are hyperbole pause and watch this video. They aren’t even trying to hide who they are,” Newsom wrote.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the DHS for comment.
