I’m gobsmacked at the failure to think on the part of the Administration and their allies, helpfully summarized by Steve Benen:
It’s true that Pretti had a holstered gun, though, as Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara explained, he had a legal right to have the firearm and a permit to carry it.
Donald Trump, for example, told The Wall Street Journal, “I don’t like it when somebody goes into a protest and he’s got a very powerful, fully loaded gun with two magazines loaded up with bullets.” Similarly, FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News, “You cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It’s that simple.”
Around the same time, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appeared on ABC News and condemned Pretti for carrying a gun, which came a day after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said at a press conference, “I don’t know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign. This is a violent riot when you have someone showing up with weapons.”
And you folks have protested and worked against gun control laws for how many decades? And then you couldn’t predict that someone might show up with a gun? Epistemological bubble time: Liberals would never purchase and use guns!
No, Pretti didn’t draw it, brandish it, fire it, threaten ICE agents with it, even when pushed. The epitome of an honorable man. Benen even says
At this point, we could talk at length about the simple fact that Pretti wasn’t at a protest.
So ICE achieved the additional level of randomly attacking folks on the street.
But back to Trump, Noem, et al, and their ideological allies, this level of stupid is rarely achieved, and to use the special word gobsmacked is really inadequate. How are they getting through life without drowning in vats of ivermectin?
