MAGA's Twisted New Attack on Alex Pretti

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any nastier, the online Right’s response to the killing of Alex Pretti took a twisted turn. A new video surfaced last night of Pretti interacting with ICE agents on January 13^th, 11 days before he was fatally shot on the 24^th.

In the video, Pretti can be seen yelling and possibly spitting at a departing government vehicle before angrily kicking – and damaging – a rear brake light. The clip was posted breathlessly by MAGA influencers, rocketing across social media as proof positive that Pretti was no “innocent nurse.”

MAGA’s message? Pretti deserved what he had coming to him. That is, being shot to death 11 days later by a pack of ICE agents. Was the totality of Pretti’s actions on the 13th protected under the First Amendment? No, kicking and damaging a government vehicle is not a “free speech” activity.

But you know what else his actions weren’t? Justification for a death sentence in a separate event 11 days later.

The twisted assertion is obviously wrong morally, legally and logically. So WHY is it now part and parcel of the Right’s response to the shooting?

Because we all saw the video of the shooting and it is damning and indefensible for all but the most jaded MAGA influencers and true believers.

This new video is the straw that they can grasp while public opinion falls off a cliff around the approval of President Trump’s immigration agenda. It is a new piece of visual content that the online misinformation specialists can use to sow doubt about Pretti’s character and provide juuuust enough of an excuse for hardcore partisans to come back into the fold and rally around deportations and against the “leftist mob.”

My first reaction to the latest tactic (aside from disgust and anger) was amazement at how the MAGA playbook last night mirrored what developed several weeks after January 6^th. Like the events in Minneapolis, the footage of the attack on the U.S. Capitol broke through nationally and public opinion favorability for Trump cratered. There was simply no defending it.

But as time passed, the rumors of a “false flag” operation, among other nonsensical claims, started seeping through online. Before long, it was widely accepted on the Right that the whole January 6^th thing was a setup and had been thoroughly overblown by Democrats and the media. Forget what we all had witnessed with our own eyes.

But now, in the aftermath of Pretti’s death, Trump and his followers are heading down a path that many on the Right are uncomfortable with. First, they took a hatchet to the 2nd Amendment, claiming that you have no right to carry a gun at a protest and are essentially asking to be shot, drawing angry responses from pro-gun groups around the country. Now, they are asserting that your behavior, or put another way, character, supersedes your rights as an American citizen, even to the point of suffering death at the hands of the state.

Several conservative commentators have spoken out about this dangerous precedent. However, history shows that principled objections to Trumpism are ultimately discarded in favor of maintaining the tribalism that defines modern politics.

What the online Right is doing is gross. It’s wrong. And a clear majority of American citizens agree. But we cannot ignore what is happening on the internet and across social media platforms. Because the cesspool of MAGA influencers and their cousins on cable news are the tail that wag the dog of the modern GOP. What happens in the echo chamber of the biggest MAGA accounts soon becomes the undisputed talking points for the entire party.

With all that analysis aside, I want to end this post on a bit of a personal note. As the father of two boys, I cannot even begin to conceive of what Alex Pretti’s parents are going through. Whether or not they approved of his activism, what they have had to endure since his death is unimaginable.

First, learning their son was killed at the hands of their own government. Then, before his body was even cold, top Trump administration officials rushed out to label him a “domestic terrorist” with plans to “assassinate” federal agents. These were clear lies completely refuted by multiple angles of footage available online at the time.

Undoubtedly just as painful, footage of their son’s death was being reviewed and replayed frame by frame by millions online. Like a sporting event hinging on the review of a crucial play, Americans watched Pretti die over and over again, hoping to determine the truth that they knew they wouldn’t get from their own government.

And now, the online Right is trying to use footage from an unrelated event to convince the party faithful that Pretti was a bad person and got what he had coming to him.

The problem with this particular online character assassination?

We all saw the real thing happen on the streets of Minneapolis.