Politics
RNC pushed Bovino’s false claims as talking points hours before his removal
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.”
President Donald Trump on Sunday endorsed former Sen. John E. Sununu in New Hampshire’s open Senate race, boosting a longtime critic over one of his former ambassadors, Scott Brown.
Trump hailed Sununu, who Republicans see as their best chance to flip the blue Senate seat, as an “America First Patriot” in a Truth Social post Sunday afternoon. And Trump said Sununu will “work tirelessly to advance our America First Agenda.”
“John E. Sununu has my Complete and Total Endorsement — HE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN — ELECT JOHN E. SUNUNU,” he posted.
Sununu, a moderate who has opposed Trump across his presidential runs, thanked him in a statement and quickly pivoted to talking about his priorities for New Hampshire.
“I want to thank the President for his support and thank the thousands of Granite Staters who are supporting me,” Sununu said. “This campaign has and always will be about standing up for New Hampshire — every single day.”
Trump’s endorsement further tips the scales in an already pitched GOP primary between Sununu and Brown, who represented Massachusetts in the Senate before moving to New Hampshire and running unsuccessfully for Senate there in 2014. He served as Trump’s ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa in his first term, and has been presenting himself as the more Trump-aligned candidate as he courts the MAGA base.
Brown vowed to fight on. And he took a veiled shot at Sununu, accusing him of not being sufficiently dedicated to the MAGA movement.
“I am running to ensure our America First agenda is led by someone who views this mission not as a career path, but as a continuation of a lifelong commitment to service,” Brown said in a post on X. “Let’s keep working.”
The two are competing to take on Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas for the seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. Pappas issued a simple response to Trump’s endorsement of Sununu: “I’m Chris Pappas, and I approve this message,” he wrote on X. His campaign manager, Rachel Pretti, said in a statement that Trump’s endorsement “confirms” that Sununu “will sell out Granite Staters to advance his political career.”
Trump’s support for Sununu once would have seemed unfathomable. The scion of a moderate New Hampshire Republican dynasty, Sununu served as a national co-chair of former Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s 2016 presidential campaign and joined his family in backing former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley for president against Trump in the 2024 GOP primary.
Ahead of New Hampshire’s 2024 presidential primary, Sununu penned an op-ed lambasting Trump as a “loser.” (Trump went on to win by 11 points). And he later derided Trump’s 2020 election conspiracies as “completely inappropriate.”
Republicans initially were bullish about flipping an open seat in purple New Hampshire that’s already changed hands between parties twice this century — Sununu defeated Shaheen to win the seat in 2002, then lost it to her in 2008 — and coalesced quickly behind the moderate Republican as their best option against Pappas. Sununu received instant backing from the GOP’s Senate campaign arm upon his launch last October and has wracked up endorsements from the majority of Republican senators. He’s also won support from Republican leaders in New Hampshire — all of which Trump noted in his Truth Social post Sunday.
Trump also initially supported Sununu’s younger brother, former Gov. Chris Sununu, running for the Senate seat. Chris Sununu, also a vocal Trump critic, declined to launch a bid, prompting GOP interest in his brother.
But some in Trump’s Granite State MAGA base quickly rejected his endorsement of Sununu, calling it a “slap in the face to grassroots supporters” long loyal to the president.
“The Sununu family openly mocked, degraded, and worked against the America First movement, the President himself, and the policies that energized New Hampshire voters,” a group of MAGA activists wrote on X. “We will continue and intensify our campaign opposition to the Sununu operation.”
Sununu holds a wide lead over Brown in polling of the GOP primary. The latest, a University of New Hampshire online survey of likely primary voters from mid-January, showed Sununu up 48 percent to 25 percent with 26 percent of likely voters undecided. But Pappas is ahead of both Republicans in hypothetical general-election matchups, leading Sununu by 5 percentage points and Brown by 10 percentage points in the UNH poll. The survey of 967 likely GOP primary voters had a margin of error of +/-3.2 percent.
Pappas also outraised both Republicans, bringing in $2.3 million last quarter and amassing a $3.2 million war chest heading into the year. Sununu hauled in $1.3 million and had $1.1 million in cash on hand in his primary campaign account while Brown raised $347,000 through his main account and had $907,000 in the bank.
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