As a number of news outlets called out Trump administration officials for false claims about the killing of Alex Pretti, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt tried to sidestep questions of whether there was a rush to judgment.
That included comments that Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s immigration crackdown, made in the aftermath of Saturday’s deadly shooting, in which Pretti was killed by one or more federal agents in Minneapolis.
Miller referred to Pretti as an “assassin” and “domestic terrorist.” But the videos that emerged after the deadly shooting contradicted that characterization, and even the Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote, “The Trump Administration spin on this simply isn’t believable” and noted that Pretti “was a nurse without a criminal record.” Pretti’s family said in a statement, “The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting.”
Asked whether Miller will apologize to the family, Leavitt said: “This incident remains under investigation, and nobody here at the White House, including the president of the United States, wants to see Americans hurt or killed and losing their lives in American streets. And we mourn for the parents.” Administration officials also labeled Renee Good, the 37-year-old mother shot by an ICE officer earlier this month, a “domestic terrorist,” even though videos challenge the notion that she was using her SUV as a weapon.
While Leavitt did attack Democrats, claiming they incited the situation in Minneapolis, and the media, for what she called biased coverage, her briefing on Monday showed how the tone has shifted away from making pre-judgments about what happened to citing an ongoing investigation.
Asked why administration officials like Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem jumped to conclusions “before an investigation had even been conducted,” Leavitt said, “Well, look, this has obviously been a very fluid and fast-moving situation throughout the weekend, as President Trump, whom I speak for, he has said that he wants to let the investigation continue and let the facts lead in this case.”
Trump announced earlier on Monday that he is sending his border czar, Tom Homan, to Minneapolis, a move that has quickly led to questions about the role of Noem and Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino in leading the immigration enforcement operations there. Leavitt said that Trump still has full confidence in Noem’s ability to lead DHS and that Bovino would continue at Border Patrol, but Homan would be the “main point of contact on the ground in Minneapolis.”
Trump said that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called him on Monday and “we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength.”
Trump wrote: “I told Governor Walz that I would have Tom Homan call him, and that what we are looking for are any and all Criminals that they have in their possession. The Governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future. He was happy that Tom Homan was going to Minnesota, and so am I!”
Walz wrote on X that he and Trump had a “productive conversation,” but the governor pointed to a WSJ op-ed where he outlined cases where federal officials “are lying.”
Walz wrote: “The administration claims that Minnesota jails release ‘the worst of the worst.’ In reality, the Minnesota Department of Corrections honors all federal and local detainers by notifying Immigration and Customs Enforcement when a person committed to its custody isn’t a U.S. citizen. There is not a single documented case of the department’s releasing someone from state prison without offering to ensure a smooth transfer of custody.”
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