MAGA influencers who have been scrambling to find ways to justify the killing of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti at the hands of federal immigration officers are taking a victory lap online in light of footage recorded 11 days before his death.
The footage, recorded by The News Movement in Minneapolis on Jan. 13 and verified by the BBC, shows a man who appears to be Pretti in a confrontation with federal agents. The Minnesota Star Tribune also confirmed with members of Pretti’s family that the man in the video is him.
“A week before Alex was gunned down in the street — despite posing no threat to anyone — he was violently assaulted by a group of ICE agents," Steve Schleicher, an attorney for the Pretti family, told the Star Tribune in a statement.
As the agents began driving away after blocking a street, the man in the video can be seen kicking out the taillight, prompting them to stop the vehicle and get out. The agents then grab the man and push him to the ground, with multiple agents holding him down as other agents fire tear gas and pepper balls in the direction of onlookers. The agents eventually retreat, returning to their vehicle.
BBC Verify confirmed that its facial recognition technology suggested a 97% match between Pretti and the man in the video.
Trump was quick to jump on the bandwagon, after MAGA influencers and commentators like Megyn Kelly and Benny Johnson seized on the footage as evidence of violence on Pretti’s part that would justify his subsequent killing by Customs and Border Patrol agents on Jan. 24.
Trump shared The News Movement’s video of the incident without comment before reposting an X post from one of his supporters that said of Pretti, “Such a peaceful protestor,” accompanied by several skeptical emoji.
Johnson, a YouTuber and former Buzzfeed employee, crowed on X that the video proved “LEFTIST HOAX DESTROYED.” He added: “This video PROVES that Alex Pretti was not an ‘innocent bystander’ or ‘legal observer’. He was a violent agitator and psychopath hellbent on attacking federal law enforcement.”
Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly argued that federal agents were the victims of Pretti’s stalking and harassment, writing, “Alex Pretti was itching for another confrontation with Border Patrol, whom he’d been stalking, harassing and terrorizing. HE had been victimizing THEM. His felonies are on tape. He was reckless, and it cost him his life. Find another poster boy, illegal-loving Leftists.”
Former New York Mayor and close Trump ally Rudy Giuliani also weighed in, claiming that the video proved that Pretti and his “female activist accomplice” were “executing a classic ‘rearrest’” when Pretti was shot and killed.
Conservative commentator Nick Sortor labelled Pretti a “violent leftist militant,” while far-right podcaster Tim Pool asked if Pretti could have been known to the agents who would eventually kill him.
“Could he have been known to the agents as they attempted to arrest him? Known violent extremist, armed, violent, actively resisting?” Pool wrote on X.
Outkick founder Clay Travis joined the chorus, arguing that the video was proof Pretti had been “obstructing ICE for weeks,” writing on X, “Guy should have been charged with many crimes, he was looking for confrontation for weeks.” Fox News’ Jesse Watters argued that the footage showed Pretti was “assaulting a vehicle.”
The MAGAsphere’s attempts to rationalize Pretti’s killing by using footage taken from an entirely separate incident mirror language used by senior Trump officials in the days after Pretti’s killing.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described Pretti as a “domestic terrorist,” while top Trump aide Stephen Miller characterized him as a “would-be assassin.” Newsmax’s Greg Kelly recycled Noem’s terminology in a Wednesday X post, calling Pretti a domestic terrorist in a fiery response to the new footage.
The backlash to their incendiary comments was so severe that the White House even sought to distance the president from their rhetoric, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt telling reporters on Monday, “I have not heard the president characterize Mr Pretti in that way. However, I have heard the president say he wants to let the facts and the investigation lead itself.” The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
Liberal commentators were quick to condemn MAGA’s latest attempts to blame Pretti for his own death, with Pod Save America‘s Jon Favreau responding to Kelly on X, “Federal agents shot him ten times after disarming him, Megyn. If you’d like to live in a country where the punishment for kicking a taillight is a public execution, you’re free to leave America. No one is buying your bulls--t. You’ve lost the country on this one. Go juice your audience numbers with some other rage bait.”
At a CNN town hall event on Wednesday evening, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey was confronted with the video for the first time. “Are we actually making the argument that Alex Pretti should be killed for something that happened like 11 days prior to the shooting itself?”
“I think we should be talking about the circumstances that actually led to the killing and what took place. And those circumstances... I mean, you can believe your own two eyes.”
Michigan Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin told CNN’s Erin Burnett that while people “can’t destroy federal property,” nothing justifies Pretti’s death. “This is why we need an investigation; this is why we need someone besides DHS, besides ICE, do an investigation of what actually happened.”
“No matter what, even if he knocked in a light, which is not legal... you don’t deserve to be shot ten times in the street.”
The Border Patrol agents who killed Pretti have been placed on paid administrative leave for three days, at which point they will return to desk duty, according to MS NOW.
In the face of increasing public pressure and a looming government shutdown over the issue of ICE funding, President Donald Trump sent his border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis on Tuesday in what he described as an attempt to “de-escalate” tensions.
“We have Tom Homan there now. We put him in there, he’s great,” Trump told host Fox News’ Will Cain during a Tuesday campaign stop in Iowa. “And they met with the governor and the mayor and everybody else. And we’re going to de-escalate a little bit.”
