After 36 hours justifying the killing of Alex Pretti, Fox News suddenly changes its narrative; Media Matters for America, January 26, 2026

 MATT GERTZ , Media Matters for America; After 36 hours justifying the killing of Alex Pretti, Fox News suddenly changes its narrative

"On Sunday evening, Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin published a lengthy report detailing internal dissent among his federal immigration enforcement sources regarding the narrative pushed by Department of Homeland Security leaders after Border Patrol officers gunned down Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse who had been videotaping their activities, in Minneapolis on Saturday morning. 

Amid the several hundred words describing an internal schism over how DHS is messaging masked agents of the state opening fire on a man who had already been restrained, Melugin slipped in the following statement: “There is no indication Pretti was there to murder law enforcement, as videos appear to show he never drew his holstered firearm.”

Melugin’s stark acknowledgement was whiplash-inducing for anyone who had been following Fox’s on-air coverage of Pretti’s killing up to that point, and it marked the start of a dramatic shift in the network’s treatment of the case.

Fox spent Saturday and much of Sunday blaming the victim and local Democrats for his death while excusing and even valorizing his executioners. In doing so the network was following in the footsteps of the high-ranking administration officials who baselessly argued that Pretti was a “would-be assassin” engaged in “domestic terrorism.” Melugin himself was the vehicle DHS used to launder its excuse that Pretti “was armed.” 

And notably, some Fox contributors repeatedly justified Pretti’s killing by going beyond the official comment to allege that he had drawn the gun he was reportedly legally carrying and that he even pointed it at the Border Patrol officers — the very claim Melugin said Sunday night had been disproved by videos.

The fallacy of the DHS smear of Pretti had long been clear to anyone who had reviewed videos of the shooting, triggering widespread outrage over his killing. But Melugin’s admission — and his reporting on a schism within immigration enforcement over the case — apparently provided his colleagues the permission structure they needed to abandon their narrative."

Honoring the Memory of Alex Pretti; The Bulwark, January 26, 2026

 William Kristol, The Bulwark; Honoring the Memory of Alex Pretti

"It’s fitting to begin with the words of Alex Pretti a little over a year ago at the deathbed of Terrance Lee Randolph, a veteran Pretti had cared for at the VA hospital in Minneapolis.

Today we remember that freedom is not free. We have to work at it, nurture it, protect it, and even sacrifice for it. May we never forget and always remember our brothers and sisters who have served so that we may enjoy the gift of freedom. So in this moment, we remember and give thanks for their dedication and selfless service to our nation in the cause of our freedom. In this solemn hour, we give them our honor, and our gratitude.

It’s fitting, in the wake of Pretti’s killing Saturday, to remember and give thanks for his dedication and sacrifice in the cause of our freedom. And it’s proper that we resolve that he shall not have died in vain.

What would such a resolve mean? We can be guided by Michael and Susan Pretti, Alex’s parents, who said Saturday,

We are heartbroken but also very angry. . . .

Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the hero term lightly. However his last thought and act was to protect a woman.

The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. . . .

Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man.

The good news is that the administration’s slander campaign against Pretti is failing, underscored by the news this morning that the president is dispatching border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis—a rebuke of those currently in charge. But there will be lasting dishonor for all those who joined in the smears, and on those who kept silent.

But the way to honor Pretti isn’t simply to insist on the truth about him. It’s to end the lawless occupation that took his life. It’s to free his fellow citizens, in Minnesota and beyond, from attacks by masked, trigger-happy government agents. It’s to begin to end the grotesque mass deportation campaign that has led to so much inhumanity, cruelty, and violence across the nation. It’s more broadly to limit the authoritarian depredations of the Trump administration over the next three years. It’s to lay the groundwork for an America in which men and women like Alex Pretti and Renee Good are once again honored rather than killed.

This is a task for all of us, and for many institutions, including the courts, state and local government, civil society, and the private sector. But it’s above all a task for Congress. The simple fact is that DHS, ICE, and CBP are creatures of Congress. They are authorized in legislation; their funds are appropriated; the behavior of their employees can be regulated by Congress as it chooses." 

Alex Pretti’s Friends and Family Denounce ‘Sickening Lies’ About His Life; The New York Times, January 25, 2026

 Talya Minsberg, Corina Knoll and Julie Bosman, The New York Times; Alex Pretti’s Friends and Family Denounce ‘Sickening Lies’ About His Life

[Kip Currier: How despicable and unethical it is to see and hear Trump 2.0 government officials like Kristi Noem, Greg Bovino, Kash Patel, Stephen Miller, J.D. Vance, and others -- whose salaries are paid for by American tax dollars and who take oaths to serve as public servants for U.S. democracy and uphold the Constitution -- wield conspiracy theories and unsubstantiated falsehoods as reputational weapons to defame and slander individuals like Alex Jeffrey Pretti and Renee Nicole Good.]

[Excerpt]

"He was a calm presence amid hospital chaos. A mentor who taught kindness and patience to younger friends and colleagues. A singer with a knack for dancing. A bicyclist who treasured the beauty of Minnesota.

This weekend, the family, co-workers and friends of Alex Pretti, who was killed by immigration agents in a confrontation after he was apparently filming them, remembered his life, even as the circumstances of his death were debated on the national stage.

They shared photos of the Alex they knew: a smiling, bearded Mr. Pretti in the powder-blue scrubs he wore at his job as an intensive-care nurse at the Veterans Affairs hospital, an outdoors lover posing with his mountain bike on a wooded trail and a student wearing a green cap and gown as he sang a solo at his high school graduation in Green Bay, Wis.

And they denounced what they saw as smear campaigns in the aftermath of Mr. Pretti’s death.

Within hours of the killing by federal agents on a Minneapolis street, Trump administration officials labeled Mr. Pretti a “would-be assassin” and asserted, with no evidence, that he had committed an act of “domestic terrorism.”

Through their own shock and grief, people who knew him struggled to rise above the lies and insults, they said, to describe who he was.

Rory Shefchek, a friend from high school who now lives in Madison, Wis., said that he hoped that Mr. Pretti would be remembered as the person he knew.

“He was a helpful, kind guy,” Mr. Shefchek said. “He was a confident, diligent and respectful person throughout his life. I hope that Alex’s story can catalyze change, as someone who believed in doing the right thing.”

Of the cellphone footage of Mr. Pretti’s death that has circulated widely in the news and on social media, Mr. Shefchek said, “We have all seen the video and our eyes don’t lie.”"

VA Doctor Remembers Alex Pretti, 37-Year-Old Man Killed by ICE, as ‘Kind and Helpful’ ICU Nurse (Exclusive); People, January 24, 2026

 Toria Sheffield and Wendy Grossman Kantor, People; VA Doctor Remembers Alex Pretti, 37-Year-Old Man Killed by ICE, as ‘Kind and Helpful’ ICU Nurse (Exclusive)

 "Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old ICU nurse shot and killed by federal officers in Minneapolis, is being remembered by one of his colleagues as a 'kind guy' and a “very, very skilled nurse.”

“He was energetic, he was kind. He was always quick to have a joke or a laugh,” Dr. Dimitri Drekonja, an infectious disease physician at the VA Medical Center where Pretti was employed, told PEOPLE in an exclusive interview.

“He was very capable. When he gave a summary of the shift … [he] had all the information at his fingertips. He would tell me how the family was doing. He was a very, very skilled nurse,” he continued. 

Drekonja, 51, went on to say that the “biggest thing” he wants others to know about Pretti is “that this was a kind and helpful guy — and nothing over the years that I knew him contradicted that. He was always willing to help. Whether it was a small task, whether it was patient care, whether it was, ‘Hey, I can give you a ride over, we're gonna meet for drinks after work.’ He was just a really kind guy.”

“It’s just been gutting,” he continued of Pretti's death, adding that he and other colleagues at the hospital “want people to know that [Pretti] was a good person. He was such a nice guy.”

Drekonja additionally said that he and Pretti shared an interest in mountain biking, and that they would often discuss their favorite local routes.

Pretti had been a registered nurse since January 2021, according to his nursing license, obtained by PEOPLE. He previously worked at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Pretti was shot and killed on Saturday, Jan. 24, at about 9:00 a.m. local time."