Fox News host corners Trump official to her face over DHS smears against shooting victim

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is responding to the fatal Saturday, January 24 shooting of Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti in much the same way she responded to the fatal shooting of another Minneapolis resident, Renee Nicole Good, earlier in the month: by labeling him a domestic terrorist. Critics of Noem, however, are countering that videos taken the day of his death show that he posed no threat to the Border Patrol agents who killed him — and that even though Pretti was legally carrying a concealed weapon, he remained nonviolent, never pointed it at them, and was disarmed and on the ground before he was shot.

Right-wing Fox News and its sister channel Fox Business have given Noem favorable coverage more often than not. But during a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) press conference, a Fox News reporter challenged Noem's claim that Pretti was a domestic terrorist.

When the reporter asked Noem if she agreed with the Trump White House that Pretti was a "domestic terrorist" and had any "evidence" to support that claim, she responded, "When you perpetuate violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and perpetuate violence, that is the definition of domestic terrorism. This individual who came with weapons and ammunition to stop a federal law enforcement operation of federal law enforcement officers committed an act of domestic terrorism. That's the facts."

Later on Fox News, Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin doubled down on Noem's claims — telling host Dana Perino, without evidence, that in Minneapolis, there has been "a highly coordinated campaign of violence against our law enforcement."

When Perino asked McLaughlin if she was "standing by calling Pretti a domestic terrorist," she responded that there would be investigations. And Perino told her, "OK. So I guess it stands."