Bill Kristol: The Murder of Alex Pretti | The Bulwark Podcast
Quick Read
Summary
Takeaways
- ❖Alex Prey, a 37-year-old VA nurse, was killed by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis after being disarmed and shot 10 times while legally videotaping their actions.
- ❖The Trump administration immediately initiated a cover-up, leaking false information to Fox News and smearing Prey as planning a 'massacre,' despite evidence he was a law-abiding citizen.
- ❖Federal agents involved in the shooting were masked, attempted to flee the scene, cheered the killing, and prevented local police from assessing the situation, later being reassigned to another state.
- ❖The incident is framed as a direct assault on First and Second Amendment rights, with the government's stated rationale for killing Prey being their dislike of him exercising those rights.
- ❖The hosts highlight the hypocrisy of pro-Second Amendment figures like Scott Bessant and Cash Patel, who rationalized Prey's killing despite his legal concealed carry.
- ❖The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies (ICE and CBP) are described as 'utterly and totally rotten from the top down,' with leadership actively encouraging aggressive tactics.
- ❖There is a severe lack of accountability, as the identities of the agents who killed Prey remain unknown, and no charges have been filed.
- ❖Democratic responses, such as Senator Schumer's plan to 'restrain, reform, and restrict ICE,' are deemed insufficient by the hosts, who advocate for a maximalist position including a government shutdown until agents are removed from Minneapolis.
- ❖Major corporate donors to Trump, including Apple, Amazon, Google, and Meta, are criticized for their complicity in funding and enabling the administration's actions while remaining silent on the murder.
- ❖The hosts emphasize a strong moral imperative to stop the current trajectory of government overreach and violence, viewing it as a threat to a free society.
Insights
1Federal Agents Murder Citizen Exercising Constitutional Rights
Alex Prey, a 37-year-old VA nurse, was killed by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis while legally videotaping them. He was pushed, pepper-sprayed, disarmed, and then shot 10 times. This occurred while he was exercising his First Amendment right to assembly and speech (videotaping) and his Second Amendment right to carry a concealed weapon, which he was permitted to do.
Prey was a VA nurse, 37 years old, videotaping ICE agents in South Minneapolis. He was pushed to the ground, pepper-sprayed, disarmed of his concealed weapon, and then shot 10 times, including in the back of the head. The government's stated rationale for his killing was their dislike of how he was exercising these rights.
2Government Orchestrated Cover-Up and Smear Campaign
Immediately following Prey's murder, the administration began a coordinated effort to lie about the incident and smear Prey. They leaked false information to Fox News, claiming he had a weapon (which was disarmed before he was shot), and falsely stated he was an 'illegal alien' and planned a 'massacre.' They also lied about the target of their operation, claiming it was a violent criminal when the individual had only minor traffic violations.
The administration leaked to Fox that Prey had a weapon before videos were public (). CBP officials stated Prey was there to 'cause maximum damage' and 'massacre' (). They falsely claimed he was an 'illegal alien' () and that their operation targeted a violent criminal, which the Minnesota Department of Corrections debunked, stating the individual had only traffic violations ().
3Organizational Corruption and Lack of Accountability in DHS Agencies
The hosts argue that ICE and CBP are 'utterly and totally rotten from the top down,' with leadership actively encouraging aggressive and lawless behavior. The agents involved in Prey's murder were masked, cheered the killing, attempted to flee, and prevented local police from investigating, yet were subsequently reassigned to another state without being identified or charged.
Agents were masked, one cheered the killing and said 'boohoo' to onlookers (), and they tried to prevent local police from assessing the scene (). The agents were reassigned to another state (), and their identities remain unknown (). Bill Kristol states the organization is 'utterly and totally rotten from the top down' () and that leadership 'cheered for two months' for this type of behavior ().
4Hypocrisy of Second Amendment Advocates
The incident exposed the hypocrisy of many pro-Second Amendment advocates who typically champion the right to bear arms against a tyrannical government. When Alex Prey, a 'good guy with a gun,' attempted to protect others from perceived government overreach, these same figures (e.g., Scott Bessant, Cash Patel) rationalized his killing, revealing their 'power only' stance rather than a principled belief in the Second Amendment.
Scott Bessant and Cash Patel argued that Prey shouldn't bring a gun to a protest and that his actions were illegal, despite him being a legally permitted concealed carrier (). Tim Miller states, 'this is just all who whom... we don't actually have a principled belief in the Second Amendment' ().
5Corporate Complicity in Enabling Authoritarianism
Large corporations and wealthy donors who support the Trump administration are deemed complicit in these actions. They fund the administration's political apparatus and attend social events, remaining silent on human rights abuses and the murder of citizens, prioritizing political access over moral responsibility or protecting their own employees' rights.
A list of 37 donors to Trump's ballroom, including Altria, Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, are named as complicit (). Tim Cook, Apple CEO, attended a Melania movie screening after the murder, while his last public post was about MLK's legacy of justice ().
Bottom Line
The Minnesota Department of Corrections had to create a 'rapid response page' to counter the federal government's lies about local law enforcement and targeted individuals.
This indicates an unprecedented level of federal-local conflict and distrust, where a state agency is forced to actively fact-check and defend itself against its own national government, revealing a deep institutional breakdown.
Local and state governments could proactively establish clear communication protocols and public information channels to counter federal disinformation campaigns, protecting their citizens and maintaining public trust.
The vice president's response to the murder of a U.S. citizen was to lament how 'mean' people were being to ICE agents, recounting a likely fabricated story about agents being harassed during lunch.
This demonstrates a profound disconnect from reality and a prioritization of perceived grievances of federal agents over the actual death of a citizen, signaling a complete lack of empathy and accountability at the highest levels of government.
Public advocacy groups can leverage such statements to highlight the moral bankruptcy of leadership, using it as evidence of systemic issues rather than isolated incidents to galvanize public opinion and political pressure.
Key Concepts
Authoritarian Project
The hosts frame the government's actions, particularly the impunity of federal agents and the disregard for constitutional rights, as part of an 'authoritarian project' where the Constitution is only applicable to supporters and friends of the ruling power.
Power Only
This model describes the perceived stance of certain political figures and groups who, despite advocating for principles like the Second Amendment, abandon those principles when they apply to perceived opponents, demonstrating that their true allegiance is to power rather than consistent values.
Lessons
- Demand the immediate withdrawal of all federal ICE and Border Patrol agents from Minneapolis, framing it as a non-negotiable starting point for any political negotiations.
- Advocate for a government shutdown if necessary to force the removal of federal agents from Minneapolis, pushing Democratic leaders to adopt a maximalist negotiating position.
- Pressure corporate donors and CEOs (e.g., Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta) to publicly condemn the actions of federal agents and cease funding the administration, highlighting their complicity in human rights abuses.
Notable Moments
Tim Miller describes his intense emotional reaction to the murder, including 'rage tweeting,' fighting online, sleepless nights, and his 'first cry of the Trump administration.'
This personalizes the outrage and underscores the severity of the event, conveying the profound emotional impact it had on even seasoned political commentators.
The hosts highlight that Minneapolis police have not had to shoot anyone in a year, yet federal agents committed two homicides in the city within a short period, including Alex Prey.
This statistic directly refutes the narrative that federal agents were operating in a uniquely dangerous environment, instead suggesting their presence introduced violence and lawlessness.
Chris Maidell, a Republican running for governor of Minnesota, dropped out of the race, stating he 'can't look my daughters in the eye and say I'm running as a Republican' due to the federal actions and racial targeting.
This serves as a rare example of a politician choosing principle over party affiliation, offering a glimmer of hope for moral courage amidst widespread complicity and silence.
Quotes
"The organization is so rotten you don't even know how to begin to to fix it. It's literally secret police. Get them the [__] out of the city. Like that's the answer here."
"If the organization goes into 100% not even cover up, cover up would be much too mild a term, flat out lying, slandering this man who was killed, who turns out to be very admirable and impressive, you know, ICU nurse at a VA hospital... It tells you, it does say a lot. So obviously the killing is the most terrible thing but the lying is so indicative and it's why it has to be just uprooted root and branch."
"We are living in a country right now where masked agents of the state roam the streets, shoot people, kill them, American citizens, okay, then flee, and then they're protected by the government... That is totally insane. Like when you talk about East Germany in a free country, you don't get to anonymously assassinate citizens on the street."
"This was a good guy with a gun trying to protect people from a tyrannical government. That's what that's what Alex Freddy does. He he should be the poster boy for them and instead they're smearing him and saying that he deserved it."
"We owe it to him, I think, to really be serious about stopping this and stopping the whole thing from the top down. But I really feel that the moral so we talk a lot of politics uh on this show and all the time and the bull work and everyone else does too and that's of course important and fine. You got to have political ways to stop it but the moral imperative to stop what's happening I've never felt it more strongly I think that today."
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