Politics

RNC pushed Bovino’s false claims as talking points hours before his removal

Published

5 months ago

January 28, 2026

The RNC distributed talking points highlighting Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino’s false statements about the killing of Alex Pretti just hours before he was sidelined by President Donald Trump — a sign of how quickly the party’s messaging has shifted on the events in Minneapolis.

The memo, sent to party surrogates midday on Monday and obtained by Blue Light News, encouraged Republicans to cast blame for the shooting on Democrats for “inciting protestors to attack and aggressively confront law enforcement in Minneapolis.” The talking points also delve into administration officials’ account of how the shooting took place, including Bovino’s Saturday comments that the U.S. citizen killed by immigration agents “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” The government’s initial account has been called into question by videos shot by witnesses as well as analyses conducted by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and others.

The memo includes the talking point that “Agents attempted to disarm the individual as he violently resisted. Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, a Border Patrol agent fired defensive shots.” Video from the scene appears to contradict that statement.

The whiplash between the RNC’s promotion of Bovino’s comments and his sudden removal shortly afterward from the federal operation in Minneapolis shows how the administration and other Republicans scrambled to contain the fallout from the shooting. A significant number of elected GOP officials have called for an official investigation into the matter, a rare and notable break with the Trump administration.

Immediately following the shooting on Saturday, high-profile administration officials like Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem publicly described Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, as a “domestic terrorist.”

By that evening, however, Trump was already more cautious in his description of what had transpired. In an interview that day with The Wall Street Journal, the president did not answer directly when asked whether the officer involved in the shooting did the right thing and said his administration is “reviewing everything.”

Speaking at a restaurant in Iowa on Tuesday, Trump said that he hadn’t heard the assessment from Noem and others in his administration, such as deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, that Pretti was a “domestic terrorist” or assassin, but said that “certainly he shouldn’t have been carrying a gun.” Pretti had a permit to carry a firearm, according to Minnesota officials.

Monday’s talking points memo notably omits reference to any comments made by Noem since the shooting took place. While the White House has publicly stood behind Noem, administration allies have increasingly placed blame on the secretary’s handling of the chaotic crackdown in Minnesota as calls among Democrats for her impeachment have grown. On Tuesday evening, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said Noem should be “out of a job,” while Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said she “should go.”

Trump announced on Monday morning that border czar Tom Homan would go to Minneapolis to oversee the administration’s immigration operation there, a move seen as an acknowledgement that DHS’s leadership had mishandled the situation. Hours later, Bovino had been removed from his post as commander at large, according to The Atlantic.

Kiersten Pels, a spokesperson for the RNC, would not confirm the authenticity of the memo but echoed its overall sentiment in a written statement. “Democrats incited this violence by encouraging protesters to confront law enforcement,” she wrote. “Democrats are demonizing ICE and threatening to defund DHS instead of condemning attacks on officers – while President Trump and Republicans stand with law enforcement and public safety.”

Trump’s approval rating on immigration has dropped significantly since he first came into office, with only 39% of Americans now approving of the president’s handling of immigration, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll. The high-profile shooting in Minneapolis, following the fatal shooting earlier this month of Renée Good in the city, has only brought more attention to the administration’s goal of a mass deportation.

Democrats in the Senate have pledged to vote against funding DHS in a crucial vote later this week unless the bill is amended to add guardrails for the agency — and the RNC’s talking points seize on the potential for a partial government shutdown as well.

“Now, Democrats are threatening to defund law enforcement later this week by refusing to pass a DHS funding bill,” the memo concludes.

“While Democrats will stand in the way of ICE and law enforcement to defend terrorists and criminal aliens, President Trump and Republicans are working to keep our communities safe.”

Politics

Iran set to progress at World Cup

Published

31 minutes ago

June 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Iran’s adventure through a World Cup beset by geopolitical complexity and logistical complications will likely continue after the team landed a frenetic 1-1 draw against Egypt. The high-stakes encounter kicked off hours after a tenuous peace between Washington and Tehran was threatened by American strikes on Iranian military installations along the Strait of Hormuz. Read the full story from Seattle by Sasha Issenberg and Sophia Cai here.

Politics

The “Pride Match” that wasn’t

Published

2 hours ago

June 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

SEATTLE — As a lesbian who was born in Egypt, Noha Mahgoub could have chosen to dress for what local organizers branded a “Pride Match” in colors associated with either her sexual orientation or her country of origin. The 43-year-old Democratic legislative aide — one of the top staffers in Washington state government — chose the latter, arriving in a red Egyptian national team jersey, a black hat emblazoned with YALLA and red-white-and-black tricolor facepaint.

“I’ve seen Pride shirts, I’ve seen Pride face paintings,” she observed from a concourse minutes before national anthems began echoing around Lumen Field. “It’s been really great, but I’m seeing a lot more Egypt and Iran and people cheering for their countries and singing their songs.”

Indeed, despite FIFA’s announcement that rainbow flags would be permitted in the stadium, few were visible as the match began. Instead, the stands rippled with the colors of the two Middle Eastern countries on the field, including many of the pre-revolutionary lion-and-sun flags that FIFA has attempted to ban under a stadium code of conduct that prohibits political displays.

Mahgoub had seen Egypt’s national team in person only once before, as a child while the team was angling to qualify for the 1990 World Cup. Since then, Mahgoub and her family relocated to Washington state, where she said the local Egyptian-American community has become enlivened by new arrivals coming to work at Seattle-based tech companies.

“You know how it is, you start calling everybody your cousins — a lot of cousins that I wasn’t related to,” Mahgoub said. “Well, I think a lot of them are here.”

Politics

Why Belgium’s prime minister isn’t cheering on the Red Devils

Published

5 hours ago

June 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Ah, Belgium. The country of fries, chocolate, Kevin De Bruyne and, some might say, chronic political division.

Beyond Brussels, a mighty international melting pot, the country is split between Dutch-speaking Flanders, French-speaking Wallonia and a small German-speaking community. Those linguistic divisions are mirrored in its politics: Belgium has separate party systems on either side of the language border, as well as a highly devolved federal structure that gives significant powers to its regions.

Today, Belgian politics is as fragmented as ever. It took 234 days to form a federal government after the June 2024 election (yes, you read that right). The delay was driven largely by the fact that no camp came close to winning a majority, forcing months of negotiations between parties with sharply different ideological and linguistic bases.

Flemish nationalism has also become a growing force, shaped by two right-wing nationalist parties: the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), which wants to transform Belgium into a looser confederal state and ultimately give Flanders far greater autonomy, and the far-right Vlaams Belang, which openly campaigns for Flemish independence.

So, you might think the 2026 World Cup would offer Belgium’s leader a rare opportunity to rally and unify the country behind a shared national symbol, right?

Wrong.

Prime Minister Bart De Wever, who hails from the N-VA party, has expressed almost no public support for the Red Devils, Belgium’s national soccer team.

That contrasts with leaders in nearby countries that also qualified for the World Cup. The leaders of the Netherlands, Germany and France have all publicly backed their squads, whether on social media or through public appearances.

The reason may be simple: De Wever just doesn’t care for the sport.

A Belgian official told Blue Light News: “The prime minister is not a soccer fan, so he doesn’t seek to project that image publicly. To do otherwise would not be authentic.”

Flemish media have indeed reported that the prime minister has little interest in soccer. In a podcast appearance a few years ago, he said the sight of people “going totally crazy in a group in the stands” left him feeling “ice cold.”

But politics is likely part of the story too. De Wever has led the Flemish nationalist N-VA since 2004. Throughout his political career, he has argued that Flanders should have far greater autonomy and that Belgium should evolve into a confederal state. For a politician with that background, overt displays of Belgian national unity probably don’t come naturally, and in fact contradict emphasis on Flemish autonomy.

This is not the first time the N-VA’s relationship with the Red Devils has attracted attention. In 2015, after Belgium reached No. 1 in the FIFA world rankings, Francophone Socialist Party leader Laurette Onkelinx asked the Chamber of Representatives to applaud the team. All parties joined in, except the N-VA.

During Euro 2016, the N-VA had to deny it instructed ministers and MPs to avoid publicly celebrating the Red Devils so as not to appear too Belgian, after rumors circulated in Belgian media.

One of De Wever’s few comments about this year’s World Cup concerned Belgium’s official tournament song. His complaint: It did not contain a single word of Dutch.

“My staff have confirmed to me that not a single word is sung in Dutch. That is, to put it mildly, not elegant,” he said, in keeping with his ideologies of promoting Flanders, when asked about the song during a parliamentary committee hearing.

Sport is often treated as a vehicle for national unity. In New Zealand, Belgium’s opponent in today’s match, elite teams have successfully woven elements of Māori culture into their sporting traditions, most famously through the prematch haka, which has helped create a shared cultural identity that connects Māori and non-Māori New Zealanders.

In Belgium, however, this World Cup has not yet become that kind of unifying project. At least not from the very top.