President Donald Trump skirted a question regarding the shooting death of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Saturday.
A reporter from the Wall Street Journal asked the president twice if the Border Patrol agent did the “right thing” by shooting Pretti, according to Mediaite.
The questions were posed during a brief phone interview Sunday.
Trump did say his administration was looking into the shooting and would not comment further.
“We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination,” Trump said to The Journal reporter.
The Journal’s report came out after Trump went on Truth Social and called for Democratic leaders like Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to work alongside federal immigration agents on the “rapid removal of all Criminal Illegal Aliens in our Country,” IJR reported.
Trump’s post included a four-point plan for Democratic leaders to follow.
The president said the shooting deaths of Pretti and Renee Good were due to the Democrat-backed “chaos.”
Earlier on Sunday, Walz asked the Trump administration to withdraw immigration agents from Minnesota, likening the immigration raids to Anne Frank’s capture by the Nazis.
“Allow our children to go back to school. We have got children in Minnesota hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside,” Walz said. “Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank. Somebody’s going to write that children’s story about Minnesota.”
Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino told reporters Pretti wanted to “massacre” agents because he was carrying a 9 mm handgun.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem claimed the agents “fired defensive shots” at Pretti because they feared for their lives.
However, some have accused Noem of changing the narrative. CNN anchor Jake Tapper responded to Noem on X by posting the video of the shooting and asking, “Is that what you see?”
Fox News reporter Bill Melugin reported Sunday that immigrant agents were “increasingly uneasy” and “frustrated” with how Bovino and Noem have commented on the shooting.
“These sources say this messaging from DHS officials has been catastrophic from a PR and morale perspective, as it is eroding trust and credibility,” Melugin wrote, “comparing it to when Democrats falsely claimed the border was closed or that Haitians were being whipped at the border.”
