The strong nationwide reaction to the assault on communities and the murder of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by the ICE goons has clearly put the Trump gang on the negative. After starting with their usual lies that the two victims were domestic terrorists who were attacking the ICE thugs, they started to backtrack when the videos of the events taken by eyewitnesses from multiple angles showed that that they were innocent people gunned down by thugs who seemed to feel that they could act with impunity. I do not watch TV but read that these videos were shown repeatedly, making the Trump lies untenable.
As a result of the uproar, Trump and his lackeys have started to refer to the events as a tragedy, put the murderers on suspension, demoted the Nazi cosplaying head thug Greg Bovino and removed him from the scene in Minnesota, and promised an investigation into the killings, though I am not holding my breath that anything will come from that.
Trump of course will never take responsibility or apologize but his lackeys are now backing away from their earlier bombast and distancing themselves from Stephen Miller, the ghoulish advisor to Trump and chief proponent of the harsh ICE behavior.
What Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, did not say on Monday was more important than what she did.
When Leavitt stepped up to the briefing room podium to address the deadly shooting of Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis, she avoided the kind of victim-blaming tirade that has become de rigueur for Donald Trump’s administration.
Instead the spokeswoman called Pretti’s death a “tragedy”, said the US president wanted to let the investigation take its course, and, strikingly, refused to endorse adviser Stephen Miller’s slander of Pretti as a “would-be assassin”.
…When a reporter cited Miller’s tweet and asked why administration officials jump to conclusions before an investigation had even been conducted, Leavitt dodged: “Well, look, this has obviously been a very fluid and fast-moving situation throughout the weekend. As for President Trump, whom I speak for, he has said that he wants to let the investigation continue and let the facts lead in this case.”
Pressed on Miller’s “would-be assassin” comment again, Leavitt deflected: “Look, as I’ve said, I have not heard the president characterise Mr Pretti in that way.”
The press secretary declined to answer a follow-up or comment on whether Miller would be issuing an apology to Pretti’s family.
But Leavitt did remark: “Nobody here at the White House, including the president of the United States, wants to see Americans hurt or killed and losing their lives in American streets. We mourn for the parents. As a mother myself, of course, I cannot imagine the loss of life, especially losing one’s child.”
If Trump is backing down – and it is still a big if – that will be welcome but not entirely surprising. The president is, above all, a creature of television, better tuned to the power of images and commentary on the small screen than many of his younger acolytes. And the TV has been wretched for the past 48 hours: endless videos showing the street execution of Pretti, exposing official accounts as a lie.
Moreover, a scriptwriter could hardly have come up with a more sympathetic victim than Pretti, including for Republican viewers: he was an ICU nurse who cares for military veterans. He was also allegedly carrying a gun, as he was legally entitled to in Minnesota. Republican defenders of the second amendment take a dim view of this being used to justify the government’s over-zealous response.
It is becoming harder and harder for Trump supporters to condone what is going on, though they keep trying.
Support for ICE has been cratering and even some Republicans are beginning to worry that they are being led over a political cliff by Trump.
Trump would also be aware of rumblings of discontent within his own party and not only from the usual suspects. Congressman James Comer of Kentucky urged the president to pull ICE out of Minnesota. Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana called for a joint investigation into the shooting. Congressman Bill Huizenga of Michigan called for congressional hearings.
All are aware of opinion polls that say a majority of Americans believe that ICE has gone too far. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump “fielded dozens of calls over the weekend from administration officials and senators, with some worrying that public sentiment has turned against the administration’s immigration-enforcement actions”. Immigration, for so long a Republican strength, has turned into a liability.
This weekend there are going to be anti-ICE protests across the country in order to keep up the pressure.
And did I mention that we are once again in government shutdown brinkmanship, this time caused by efforts to force changes to ICE.
Yes, Republicans are doing a great job of governing.
However that is, unfortunately, exactly what the big orange crock of shit and his cronies want. Without Democrat pressure they would have to back down without having an excuse for it.
So… I work with Veteran Affairs and have access to an @va.gov email account. I get all the mass emails that go to everyone in the VA.
I got useless, last minute emails right before the last government shutdown blaming Democrats. In the past, even under Trump’s first administration, warnings about shutdowns would come a week or two before the deadline so staff could prepare. The last time they came right before. They weren’t communications to the staff, they were campaign ads and hit pieces distributed with our tax dollars.
After Alex Pretti was killed this entire week went by without a single mention of it. Nothing about Minnesota or Minneapolis. Complete silence.
Normally when the VA enters headlines, much less this MANY headlines, I would expect an acknowledgement of the situation. Condolences to colleagues and family. A reminder that even in difficult times the work requires we put the veterans first. Some version of this could even be expected if the VA employee was a mass murderer who gunned down dozens of people.
But instead the Trump regime is pretending it never happened.
They are not in retreat. They are putting on a show. This is the bully pretending everyone is actually friends while there are adults around. The minute they think attention has moved on, they’ll be doing whatever they want again.
The only way to get the narcissist to back down is to make every other choice untenable and unacceptable to him. That clearly hasn’t happened yet because they’re still playing games.
Lanir @ 2
Absolutely true.
They are NOT in retreat. They are plotting the next nefarious move.
The only thing that will throw a lasting spanner in their works is if DJT gets a major stroke, or sh*ts his pants in public. JD Vance is vile but will have very little authority as a replacement.
@birgerjohansson #3:
Interesting choice of phrase. I’ve been thinking his antics on the international stage (in Davos for instance) were just about equivalent to walking up and taking a dump in front of world leaders. To be fair I guess it’s not quite the same as performing the act on stage but it does feel about equivalent to holding an unwanted show and tell after the act.
Realistically though, as far as I can tell it doesn’t matter what I think until we reach an election and he fails to promote shenanigans over it, or we hold a general strike. Until one of those two things happen we’re just waiting for MAGA to destroy its credibility with the true believers.
I personally think it’s absurd that anyone imagines Trump should get the benefit of the doubt about his association with Epstein after we already know what sort of sex pest he is. But for the faithful the shenanigans around the Epstein files should be a trial of faith equivalent to the many priestly sex abuse scandals. It certainly won’t end the cult even though it should. But it’s more likely to do damage than anything I could do or say, even if I had a national stage to say it on.
#2 Shock For Republicans: Democrat FLIPS Texas Senate Seat in GOP Stronghold Tarrant County
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=-5AItGBIlzU
While this is the *Texas* senate, an upset like this is the only thing that can influence the cowardly GOP opportunists in congress.
By many accounts, Trump is stinky. All y’all are supposing he doesn’t already poop his pants.
# 3
“I am closing down the Kennedy Center for two years ”
= I will tear down the Kennedy Center like the East Wing, unless somebody stops me.