{"id":18296,"date":"2026-01-28T03:01:54","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T03:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/rnc-pushed-bovinos-false-claims-as-talking-points-hours-before-his-removal\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T03:01:54","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T03:01:54","slug":"rnc-pushed-bovinos-false-claims-as-talking-points-hours-before-his-removal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/rnc-pushed-bovinos-false-claims-as-talking-points-hours-before-his-removal\/","title":{"rendered":"RNC pushed Bovino\u2019s false claims as talking points hours before his removal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The RNC distributed talking points highlighting Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino\u2019s false statements about the killing of Alex Pretti just hours before he was sidelined by President Donald Trump \u2014 a sign of how quickly the party\u2019s messaging has shifted on the events in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

The memo<\/a>, sent to party surrogates midday on Monday and obtained by Blue Light News, encouraged Republicans to cast blame for the shooting on Democrats for \u201cinciting protestors to attack and aggressively confront law enforcement in Minneapolis.\u201d The talking points also delve into administration officials\u2019 account of how the shooting took place, including Bovino\u2019s Saturday comments that the U.S. citizen killed by immigration agents \u201cwanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” The government\u2019s initial account has been called into question by videos shot by witnesses as well as analyses conducted by The New York Times<\/a>, The Wall Street Journal<\/a>, and others.<\/p>\n

The memo includes the talking point that \u201cAgents 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.\u201d Video from the scene appears to contradict that statement.<\/p>\n

The whiplash between the RNC\u2019s promotion of Bovino\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cdomestic terrorist.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/a>, the president did not answer directly when asked whether the officer involved in the shooting did the right thing and said his administration is \u201creviewing everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking at a restaurant in Iowa on Tuesday, Trump said that he hadn\u2019t heard the assessment<\/a> from Noem and others in his administration, such as deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, that Pretti was a \u201cdomestic terrorist\u201d or assassin, but said that \u201ccertainly he shouldn\u2019t have been carrying a gun.\u201d Pretti had a permit to carry a firearm, according to Minnesota officials.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s 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\u2019s handling of the chaotic crackdown in Minnesota<\/a> as calls among Democrats for her impeachment have grown. On Tuesday evening<\/a>, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said Noem should be \u201cout of a job,\u201d while Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said she \u201cshould go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump announced on Monday morning that border czar Tom Homan would go to Minneapolis<\/a> to oversee the administration\u2019s immigration operation there, a move seen as an acknowledgement that DHS\u2019s leadership had mishandled the situation. Hours later, Bovino had been removed from his post as commander at large, according to The Atlantic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kiersten Pels, a spokesperson for the RNC, would not confirm the authenticity of the memo but echoed its overall sentiment in a written statement. \u201cDemocrats incited this violence by encouraging protesters to confront law enforcement,\u201d she wrote. \u201cDemocrats are demonizing ICE and threatening to defund DHS instead of condemning attacks on officers \u2013 while President Trump and Republicans stand with law enforcement and public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s approval rating on immigration has dropped significantly since he first came into office, with only 39% of Americans now approving of the president\u2019s handling of immigration, according to a recent Reuters\/Ipsos poll<\/a>. The high-profile shooting in Minneapolis, following the fatal shooting earlier this month of Ren\u00e9e Good in the city, has only brought more attention to the administration\u2019s goal of a mass deportation.<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 and the RNC\u2019s talking points seize on the potential for a partial government shutdown as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, Democrats are threatening to defund law enforcement later this week by refusing to pass a DHS funding bill,\u201d the memo concludes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The RNC distributed talking points highlighting Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino\u2019s false statements about the killing of Alex Pretti just hours before he was sidelined by President Donald Trump \u2014 a sign of how quickly the party\u2019s messaging has shifted on the events in Minneapolis. The memo, sent to party surrogates midday on Monday and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}