The wall-to-wall coverage by cable and broadcast networks, day after agonizing day, showed the country erupting in outrage over the killing — and the administration’s explosive response — to the death of ICU nurse Alex Pretti at the hands of ICE agents in Minneapolis.
For the first time in the ICE saga, the administration buckled in the face of relentless, hard-hitting questioning by top anchors, including Kristen Welker, Dana Bash, and Fox’s Griff Jenkins, among others. It was the kind of confrontational journalism that made its mark and drew blood.
With anchors repeatedly cross-examining top administration officials, the message became clear: the story wasn’t holding up. Videos surfaced, and the narrative cracked.
Dana Bash, co-host of CNN’s State of the Union, came out swinging, grilling Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Greg Bovino in a fiery, no-holds-barred interview, demanding answers as to why Pretti was killed in cold blood. The next day, Bovino was banished from the city along with a handful of agents, and Border Czar Tom Homan was dispatched to the scene. Co-host of Fox & Friends Brian Kilmeade had suggested bringing in Homan three times on the show.
Pretti was pinned to the ground by several agents, one of whom took his gun — which he had a legal right to carry and conceal — and it was then, as cellphone video makes clear, that he was shot 10 times. They could have handcuffed him at that point; instead, the agents opened fire.
“Dana, first he was there in the scene. He was in the scene actively impeding and assaulting law enforcement to the point…,” Bovino said.
Bash retorted, “He wasn’t impeding it. He was filming it, which is a legal thing to do in the United States of America.” Bovino countered, “Dana, let’s don’t freeze-frame adjudicate this now. He was there for a reason. And that reason was to impede law enforcement, to the point…”
She kept going. “What evidence do you have of that?” Bash didn’t let Bovino hide behind talking points, and viewers — including the Commander in Chief — noticed.
On NBC’s Meet the Press, Kristen Welker went for the jugular, tearing into the administration’s narrative that Pretti was “brandishing a weapon” at ICE agents and acting as a “domestic terrorist,” as Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem proclaimed right after the shooting.
Welker’s prosecutorial style forced Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to go on the defensive. Welker asked, “Did you see him at any point brandish a gun?” Blanche replied, “You can’t see everything that’s happening. There are a lot of angles we don’t see.”
She then pressed him on the actions of the agents more broadly. “Are they acting humanely?” Blanche answered, “Yes, our agents are acting humanely.”
Even on Fox News, Griff Jenkins, co-host of Fox & Friends, turned up the heat in what is normally friendly territory for the administration. He interrogated Blanche, asking why video evidence painted a dramatically different picture than the official line.
“With all due respect, sir, my question is more pointed… it doesn’t appear to most of the country that have watched the available video… it does not appear to have met that definition of domestic terrorism.”
Blanche acquiesced. “Look, I don’t think anybody thinks that they were comparing what happened on Saturday to the legal definition of domestic terrorism.” Blanche blinked, and Jenkins’ questions reflected a growing discomfort, even among conservative viewers.
The administration’s spinners took a beating, and it led President Trump to do what he hates to do: back down. He thinks it gives the media — who he calls the “enemy of the people” — a major victory.
But he really had no choice, with even hyper-partisan Republican lawmakers like James Comer, head of the Oversight Committee, encouraging Trump on Maria Bartiromo’s show on Fox to consider pulling ICE from Minnesota.
Under the glare of TV spotlights, and as protests swept Minneapolis and the country, the coverage continued to flood every hour of cable news, especially on MS NOW. The administration’s claims, confronted with stark video evidence that most people have seen, unraveled.
The intense questioning by top anchors left the public wondering why a 37-year-old ICU nurse, who worked with veterans, could die at the hands of those sworn to protect him. He’s the second American citizen to die, following the killing of mother of three Renee Good, who had just dropped off her child at school. Across the media landscape, critics rejected the administration’s attempt to blame the victims — even if they made mistakes — as a prime example of trigger-happy, badly trained federal agents.
Imagine what would have happened if there hadn’t been cellphone video and viewers were left to rely solely on the administration’s insistence on blaming the victims, branding the dead nurse a “domestic terrorist” who was allegedly brandishing a weapon.
For the most part, this was exceptional journalism done by highly trained professionals who chiseled away at administration efforts to deny what so many of us could see with our own eyes.
That constant refusal to accept false claims, declaring them flatly contradicted by video evidence and replaying it again and again, was not only good for the profession. It was good for a country that remains badly shaken by the fatal and unnecessary killing of two American citizens.
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Well said, Lauren! Thank goodness there are still media people willing to stand up to The Trump.