🎥What President Trump said about Alex Pretti carrying a gun

WASHINGTON (AP) —President Donald Trump said Tuesday a “big investigation” was underway into the killing of protester and ICU nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis.

“I want to see the investigation. I’m going to be watching over it, and I want a very honorable and honest investigation. I have to see it myself,” the president said as he left the White House.

The comment is the latest marker of Trump’s sudden turnabout on the issue as his administration confronts growing pushback — including from some Republicans and Second Amendment advocates — on federal agents’ tactics in the second fatal shooting from the aggressive immigration operation in Minnesota.

A day earlier, the White House made an effort to distance Trump from some early comments by high-ranking administration officials who had branded Pretti as a domestic terrorist despite videos of the encounter contradicting their narrative.

Immigration agents were active Tuesday across the Twin Cities region, but it was unclear if officials had changed tactics after the shift in tone from the White House.

The Latest:

President Trump says Pretti ‘shouldn’t have been carrying a gun’

As he greeted diners in a Des Moines-area restaurant, Trump again weighed in on the Minnesota shooting.

“We view that as a very unfortunate incident, OK?,” he said, adding that everyone “unless you’re a stupid person” viewed it that way.

In comments that were likely to further irritate his backers who are also strong Second Amendment supports, he said: “I don’t like that he had a gun. I don’t like that he had two fully loaded magazines. That’s a lot of bad stuff.”

Trump suggests his shakeup of federal officials in Minnesota may ‘de-escalate’ thing

Trump said during an interview on Fox News’ “Will Cain Show” of his sending Homan to Minnesota, “we’re going to de-escalate a little bit.”

That’s significant since White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, when questioned repeatedly Monday about Homan’s being dispatched to Minnesota, refused to say that doing so was an effort to calm the situation.

The president added of Homan, “Tom, as tough as he is, gets along” with governors and mayors, even in Democratic areas.

Trump also spoke of Bovino, who has been sent out of Minnesota. He said Bovino is “very good” but also that “he’s a pretty out-there kind of a guy” and “maybe it wasn’t good here.”

Schumer says Noem is ‘incompetent’ and a ‘liar’ and should be fired

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is “a liar,” “vicious” and “incompetent” and must be fired after the fatal shootings of two Minneapolis protesters by federal authorities.

In opening floor remarks as the Senate returned to Washington, Schumer said that Democrats will not vote for Homeland Security funding as part of a wide-ranging spending bill passed by the House last week. The government will partially shut down if the Senate doesn’t pass the legislation by Friday.

Schumer said Republicans should strip the Homeland spending portion out of the bill and should not force a vote on legislation “that everyone knows cannot pass.”

“The ball is in Leader Thune’s court,” Schumer said of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

Democrats have criticized Noem and other officials for saying that 37 year-old Alex Pretti “approached” immigration officers with a gun and acted violently when video evidence appears to show otherwise.

Schumer stopped short of saying that Noem should be impeached as dozens of Democrats have signed on to an impeachment resolution in the House.

Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin supports impeaching Kristi Noem if she’s not fired

Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, of Wisconsin where Alex Pretti grew up and graduated from high school, said she supports impeaching Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

“She has to go,” Baldwin told reporters during an online news conference Tuesday. “She needs to be fired or she should resign. ... If impeachment is the way to do it, I’d support it.”

Baldwin also said she would not vote for the DHS funding bill before the Senate without additional accountability measures for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“ICE is out of control and they are wreaking havoc on American cities, including Minneapolis-St. Paul,” Baldwin said. “The question is are my Republican colleagues just going to look away or are they going to join us in adding accountability measures that rein in ICE?”

Minneapolis mayor asks border czar to quickly end immigration enforcement surge

Mayor Jacob Frey told President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, that the city will not enforce federal immigration laws, and he asked that the immigration enforcement surge “come to an end as quickly as possible.”

Homan met with Frey and Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara Tuesday morning.

“Public safety works best when it’s built on community trust — not tactics that create fear or division,” Frey said in a statement released after the meeting. “I shared with Mr. Homan the serious negative impacts this operation has had on Minneapolis and surrounding communities, as well as the strain it has placed on our local police officers.”

Frey said the city would “remain focused on keeping our neighbors and streets safe.”

Trump says Minneapolis victim’s parents’ support for him makes him feel ‘even worse’

Trump called the fatal shootings of two Americans by federal agents in Minneapolis “terrible” and said that hearing that one was the daughter of Trump supporters makes it even worse for him.

Renee Good, 37, was shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on Jan. 7. Alex Pretti, also 37, was killed on Jan. 24.

“I’m not sure about his parents but I know her parents were big Trump fans. Makes me feel bad anyway. But I mean, I guess you could say even worse,” he said.

Trump made the comments Tuesday in an interview with Fox News in Iowa, where he had flown earlier that day to speak at a rally in the Des Moines area.

House Democratic leader says Noem must go — or face impeachment proceedings

“The country is disgusted by what the Department of Homeland Security has done,” said Leader Hakeem Jeffries in a statement.

The Democrat is the latest in a growing number of voices — from party leaders to advocacy groups to the most centrist of lawmakers in Congress — insisting on dramatic changes in the aftermath of the shooting deaths in Minnesota.

“Kristi Noem should be fired immediately or we will commence impeachment proceedings in the House,” said Jeffries, whose party would need GOP support on any legislation to launch such an effort.

“The violence unleased on the American people by the Department of Homeland Security must end.”

Trump disputes staff and says slain Alex Pretti was not an ‘assassin’

Trump was asked if the killed Minneapolis protester was an “assassin” as a key aide has claimed and the president answered “no.”

The president added, however, that protesters “can’t have guns” as Pretti did and “it’s just a very unfortunate incident.” Trump has said he wants the death investigated.

On Saturday, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller on social media described Pretti as an “assassin” who “tried to murder federal agents.” Vice President JD Vance shared the post on X as well.

Trump says Noem isn’t going to resign

Asked by reporters as he left the White House on Tuesday for a trip to Iowa whether Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is going to step down, Trump had a one-word answer: “No.”

He did not elaborate further.

Democrats in Congress have called for Noem’s exit after federal agents fatally shot two people in Minneapolis protesting immigration enforcement actions.