The View co-host Ana Navarro has accused the Trump administration of gaslighting the American people over the circumstances of Minneapolis ICU nurse Alex Pretti’s death at the hands of Border Patrol agents.
During Monday’s segment of the ABC talk show, Navarro, 54, addressed Saturday’s fatal shooting of Pretti, which came weeks after fellow Minnesotan Renee Good was shot and killed by ICE.
“ICE agents are told they have immunity [after killing Good], and they go out and do it again. They are emboldening and empowering the lawlessness and the abuses of power that are going on by some of these federal agents,” she argued.
“This government does something that I’m not used to saying about a U.S. government. It lies to the citizens. It lies to the people. And so for them a camera is just as dangerous as a gun because they don’t want people to see the truth,” Navarro added. “They don’t want people to see the cruelty that they are inflicting on women, on children, citizens, residents [and] people with pending asylum.
“They want you to believe that they are taking murderers and rapists and serious criminals off the streets,” she continued. “If that, in fact, was true, they would be showing us evidence, and we would all be clapping. But that is not what they are doing. What they are doing is lying to the American people, and they are lying about Alex Pretti.”
Following Pretti’s death, Trump administration officials claimed a Border Patrol agent shot him in self-defense because he was carrying a gun. However, open-sourced video capturing the incident appears to contradict these accounts, showing Pretti holding a phone and moving to assist individuals on the sidewalk near the agents, who then began pepper-spraying the group.
The victim is then tackled by at least five agents and dragged to the ground. The footage shows the Border Patrol agents struggling with Pretti on the ground and striking him when a gunshot is heard. A moment later, an agent fires multiple shots while Pretti is down on the pavement.
Ten shots were fired within five seconds.
Immediately after the shooting, the agents back off from Pretti’s body, and one officer — who appears to be holding a gun — runs away from the scene and hides behind a nearby car.
Navarro went on to read a statement from Pretti’s parents, remembering their son as a “hero” and “kindhearted soul who cared deeply about his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse.”
“The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting,” she recited. “Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man.”
Reiterating their message, Navarro begged viewers to “amplify the truth. Amplify these videos. Amplify this message, so that this government can’t get away with gaslighting the American people.”
