Bill Kristol: The Murder of Alex Pretti
The Bulwark Podcast
The Bulwark
4.6 • 11.6K Ratings
🗓️ 26 January 2026
⏱️ 48 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
The Trump administration’s version of the Stasi murdered Alex Pretti in cold blood because he was exercising his First Amendment right to peacefully assemble and his Second Amendment right to carry a licensed firearm. But in MAGA land, those rights only apply to the people on their side, not all Americans. The few Republicans who are starting to feel queasy about menacing agents running around our cities should also recognize that they are complicit in the killings of Pretti and Renee Good because they funded them. As for the Dems, they should be considering maximalist demands—like ending the occupation of the Twin Cities—since the serial liars in the administration are acting like they’re above the law. Plus, Tim Cook and the other CEOs who helped fund the golden ballroom or showed up to the “Melania” screening Saturday night are also complicit.
Bill Kristol joins Tim Miller.
show notes
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the Bullard podcast. |
| 0:14.5 | I'm your host, Tim Miller. |
| 0:15.9 | It is Monday, so I'm here with editor at large, Bill Crystal. |
| 0:20.8 | Obviously, we're going to spend the whole show today talking about the murder of Alex |
| 0:25.4 | Preddy by agents of the state, ICE and CBP and Minnesota over the weekend. |
| 0:31.4 | Usually have a little topic outline for us, Bill. |
| 0:33.9 | We can have run through different issues. |
| 0:35.4 | And today, I just have Bill Rants, Tim Rants, |
| 0:38.8 | Bill Rants, so we're just going to take turns screaming into the ether in the hopes that |
| 0:43.0 | that resonates with somebody. Variety is overrated. I think consistency of tone is very important |
| 0:50.1 | in these shows. Since you and I have been in the last 48 hours in a pretty angry, I'm genuinely angry and upset. Wouldn't you say, I don't know that I've been as upset in the Trump years, really? Yeah, I don't know. I was pretty upset back around kind of Lafayette Square Time in the first term, but I've been rage tweeting. I've been fighting with everyone on the internet. I can't sleep. I was like rage posting instead of sleeping over the weekend. And I think I had my first cry of the Trump administration too. I was kind of surprised that I didn't cry when he won. So I had my first cry. It's fucking terrible what they've done. And I do think it's important that the response is commensurate to the crime. |
| 1:30.5 | And I think that is where my rage is emanating from. So I guess, obviously, over the weekend, |
| 1:36.2 | folks haven't done this. You can make sure to sign up for the Bork takes feed because, |
| 1:39.4 | you know, when stuff's happening over the weekends or at night, we are doing live coverage. |
| 1:43.3 | So we talked about this a bunch, |
| 1:44.4 | but that's the first show back since it happens. Just really quick going through the facts, and then |
| 1:49.4 | we can get to our rants. So this was Saturday morning, and Alex Pretti, as a VA nurse, 37 years old, |
| 1:57.8 | was videotaping ICE agents in South Minneapolis. We have a bunch of different |
| 2:04.6 | angles of video at this point to see this, including in the lead-up. He was in the street |
| 2:09.1 | kind of, it looks like maybe directing traffic or something, or it was unclear exactly what he's doing, |
| 2:13.1 | but he'd moved to the sidewalk and some ICBP agents approach him and a woman. You can't really hear what |
| 2:20.0 | the woman is saying, but they push the woman to the ground. He is still videotaping, Prattie, |
... |
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