Megyn Kelly says Alex Pretti was 'stalking and harassing' ICE
Megyn Kelly criticized the slain ICE protester Alex Pretti for 'stalking, harassing and terrorizing' agents after a video emerged showing him kicking the tail light of one of the agency's SUVs.
The 37-year-old was killed on Saturday after being shot 10 times by Border Patrol agents, who have claimed he was brandishing a 9mm handgun during a confrontation in Minneapolis.
As debates over whether the shooting was justified continued, footage emerged on Wednesday showing Pretti angrily spitting at the window of the Ford Expedition SUV filled with federal officers conducting raids to arrest illegal migrants.
He could be heard in the newly-released footage screaming '[expletive] trash' at officers, and as the SUV began to pull away, Pretti could be seen angrily kicking its tail light, shattering it.
Kelly shared the footage on social media Wednesday night, proclaiming that Pretti 'was itching for another confrontation with Border Patrol, whom he'd been stalking, harassing and terrorizing.'
'HE had been victimizing THEM,' she claimed, arguing 'his felonies were on tape' and that Pretti 'was reckless and it cost him his life.'
'Find another poster boy, illegal-loving Leftists,' she wrote.
Reviewing the altercation
The Department of Homeland Security has said it is now reviewing the footage as it conducts its investigation into the fatal shooting.
Authorities have said Pretti had an altercation with federal officers that saw him break a rib ahead of his untimely death.
It could not be immediately confirmed whether the new clip depicts the moment he broke the rib and whether it was filmed before or afterward the breakage.
But the footage shows that after Pretti kicked the SUV on January 13, an officer got out of the vehicle and started fighting with the intensive care nurse, pinning him to the ground as bystanders screamed.
Surrounding officers then fired tear gas and pepper balls into the crowd, while agents released Pretti from their grip and set him free.
The nurse, who appeared to have a gun in his waistband as he did the day of the shooting, then picked up his belongings that came off in the scuffle and walked away.
The officers he had been fighting with what appeared to be either Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents.
It does not appear that Pretti was arrested for causing damage to federal property in the aftermath.
The George Floyd connection
Lawyers for Pretti's family have confirmed to The Star Tribune that the agitator in the footage 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,' said attorney Steve Schleicher on behalf of the family.
'Nothing that happened a full week before could possibly have justified Alex's killing at the hands of ICE on Jan 24,' added Schleicher, an ex-federal prosecutor who helped secure a conviction for Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the George Floyd case.
The 37-year-old's death, which came just weeks after Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent on January 7, sparked an immediate uproar across the country.
A litany of criticism on both sides of the political line has put pressure on the Trump administration to make changes to the ongoing immigration crackdown in the US.
It was also revealed on Wednesday that the two Border Patrol agents who killed Pretti have been placed on administrative leave.
Sources in Homeland Security confirmed to the Daily Mail that the agents, who have not been identified, were suspended amid an investigation into the shooting.
New poll reveals deep public distrust in Pretti shooting
The agents were reportedly given mental health support as standard procedure, and were placed on automatic administrative leave for at least three days.
When the agents return, they will not be allowed out on the field and will be given desk roles, sources say.
Trump officials have tried to portray Pretti as a 'domestic terrorist' because he had a legally-owned firearm at the time he was shot, however a new government report has undermined allegations he 'brandished' the weapon.
The new report alleged that when an officer shouted 'gun' during his arrest, there was no evidence Pretti had taken it off his hip.
Footage of the shooting that circulated social media appeared to show a border patrol agent had disarmed Pretti moments before he was shot several times in the back.
A Daily Mail/JL Partners poll conducted of over 1,000 American voters on Monday, has since found 54 percent believe that the federal law enforcement murdered Pretti. The margin of error is 3.1 percent.
More than one in five Republicans, 22 percent, said Pretti's killing constituted murder.
Just 21 percent of all respondents indicated that shooting and killing the nurse was justified.
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Megyn Kelly says she's supposed to feel sorry for Alex Pretti but I doesn't
Megyn Kelly has said she does not sympathize with a protester shot dead by federal agents during an anti-immigration protest in Minneapolis.
'I know I'm supposed to feel sorry for Alex Pretti, but I don't. You know why I wasn't shot by Border Patrol this weekend? Because I kept my ass inside and out of their operations,' the former Fox host said on her podcast.
If she decided to attend a protest, Kelly added, 'I would do it peacefully on the sidewalk without interfering, because interfering is where you go south.'
She said that 'laying hands' on Border Patrol officers 'is a felony now' and warned that 'if you do anything that resembles resisting - serious trouble.'
Pretti, a 37-year-old VA nurse, was seen recording agents on his phone and then intervened after an agent shoved a woman to the ground.
He was pepper-sprayed and tackled to the ground by half a dozen agents who grappled with him while on the ground.
Pretti was shot ten times after his licensed handgun was removed from his waistband. Kelly in a separate post on X said: 'He was an agitator.'
'He was in a physical confrontation with the Feds a week earlier.'
Still, he went back and injected himself into a law enforcement operation.
FAFO [[expletive] around and find out]. 'As for me, I have plenty of compassion - for the innocent Americans being killed, [expletive] and [expletive] by illegals.'
'Where are your tears for them?'
Pretti was left with a broken rib in a scuffle with federal agents the week before he was shot dead, it emerged on Tuesday.
The alleged altercation occurred after Pretti stopped his car upon seeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers chasing a family on foot, a witness told CNN.
Pretti allegedly began shouting and blowing a whistle, and was then tackled to the ground by five agents.
The source claimed one officer leaned on his back, causing his ribs to break.
The ICU nurse, who allegedly 'thought he was going to die', was reportedly released at the scene - but allegedly remained on federal agents' radar.
Continue reading on Kelly's opinion here:
Megyn Kelly warns Republicans that ICE enforcement could cost GOP in midterms
Megyn Kelly has warned her fellow Republicans that Americans are majorly souring on President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement tactics and that it could cost the party dearly in the midterm elections.
During a Thursday interview with Adam Corolla on her Sirius XM radio show, Kelly acknowledged that polling data shows Americans are deeply dissatisfied with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), especially after the deadly January 7 shooting of Renee Goodby an agent in Minneapolis.
On air, Kelly reacted to a YouGov poll that came out on January 14, which among other things, showed that 53 percent of Americans thought the ICE agent, Jonathan Ross, was not justified in killing Good, a 37-year-old mother-of-three.
'I mean, that’s just not good,' Kelly said.
The same number of Americans, 53 percent, believe Ross should face criminal charges, something the Department of Justice almost certainly won't pursue given the Trump administration is unified in arguing the agent acted in self-defense.
According to the YouGov survey, 42 percent of respondents somewhat or strongly support the idea of ICE being abolished, while 60 percent believed ICE sometimes or often uses unnecessary force against US citizens.
A slightly larger contingent, 45 percent, do not support doing away with the agency, which was created in March 2003 with the passage of the Homeland Security Act.
ICE's worsening reputation coincides with a stronger midterm outlook for Democrats, who are on track to easily win back the House of Representatives this November.
House Democrats only need to flip three seats to win the House, and according to the non-partisan Cook Political Report, a whopping eighteen races have shifted into the blue column.
Experts also point to Trump's approval rating declining on the immigration issue as a major problem for down-ballot Republicans, who have been put in the position of defending the federal crackdown.
Continue reading Kelly's warning here:
