Politics and views in the United States

The Trump administration blames MN Dems for the Pretti and Good shootings. Calls for DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to resign grow and Senate Democrats vow to block any DHS funding, increasing the odds of another government shutdown. 

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2026 Talks where we're following our democracy in historic times.

This tragedy occurred as a result of a deliberate and hostile resistance by Democrat leaders in Minnesota.

Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt and the White House are blaming Minnesota Democrats for Alex Pretty's death over the weekend.

The 37-year-old Veterans Affairs nurse was shot while protesting ice actions in Minneapolis, the second fatal ice shooting there this month after Renee Good was killed while driving away from an immigration agent.

The administration accuses Pretty of terrorism and even planning assassinations, but videos show he was disarmed and on the ground when he was shot multiple times.

The state has seen ICE raids since widespread social services fraud was, with little evidence, blamed on the Somali community.

But even some strong congressional allies of the president now say ICE should leave Minneapolis.

Minnesota Republican Chris Mandel is ending his campaign for governor, saying his party's national leaders have made it impossible to win a statewide election.

But Vice President J.D. Vance says mistakes will always be made in law enforcement and argues local municipalities working with federal law enforcement can avoid further bloodshed.

There are some very basic things that would make Minneapolis look like Memphis, Tennessee, a blue city where you do not have this chaos in immigration enforcement because the local police and the local authorities are cooperating with us.

But data compiled by news site The Trace finds during the current crackdown there have been 19 incidents where immigration agents opened fire and another 36 when they held people at gunpoint under questionable circumstances.

National polls now show Republican voters support investigating Preddy's death and a small but increasing number even say ICE should be abolished. 70 members of Congress have signed on to a move for the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul says Noem displays a quote, "profound disregard for human life."

Kristi Noem has referred to these peaceful protesters as domestic terrorists and lied about the shooting victims being the aggressors.

She told law enforcement officers to put on masks and military fatigues to basically treat the American public as the enemy.

This comes amid a looming fight in the Senate over the DHS budget.

Democrats in the chamber are vowing not to pass a package that includes it and a partial government shutdown could begin as early as Friday unless the Senate approves a multi-agency funding bill.

Last week, several moderate House Democrats broke with their leaders to side with Republicans in approving legislation with money for DHS, along with funds for FEMA and other priorities.

University of Wisconsin political scientist Howard Schweber says this could be a crisis for Democratic Party leadership.

If they fail to either stand strong and shut down the government or obtain dramatic cuts for DHS and constraints on DHS operations, I think their leadership of the Democratic Party is over.

He notes Democratic voters are dissatisfied with concessions to Republican demands.

The record 2025 shutdown ended when a number of Democratic senators voted to fund the government based on promised compromises that haven't yet materialized.

I'm Edwin J. Viera for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

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