Bulwark Takes - Tim Miller: You Don’t Get a Mulligan for Murder

Episode Date: January 27, 2026

Tim Miller takes on the Trump administration’s effort to defuse outrage over Minneapolis with PR tweaks and cosmetic changes, arguing that softer language and shuffled personnel don’t address the abuse of power.

Hey, everybody, Tim Mell from the Bullwark here. We've had a few news items and updates coming out of the White House and DHS and Republicans on the Hill since this morning. And they're all pointing in one direction, which is to the Trump administration trying to modestly tone down their language and their incitement around Minneapolis, while not really changing anything about the day-to-day operations of ICE and CBP throughout the country. And I just think it's very important in this moment for opponents of this horrific assault on Americans' rights, and opponents of this institution that now has killed two Americans in Minneapolis,

to be very clear about what the demands are here. And to be very clear that just putting a little lipstick on the pig is not going to be a sufficient response to the heinousness with which these guys have behaved. And the lawlessness, more importantly. So I just want to give you a couple of examples what we're seeing and give my reaction to it. Let's start with the big news of the evening. A lot of conflicting reports on this and it's kind of moving in real time. But we know that something is happening with the little fellow, Gregory Bovina. There were initial reports this morning from CNN and Fox that he and some members of the CBP task force were getting pushed out of Minneapolis and they're going to go to other jurisdictions, you know, taking the rapist priest and moving them from one parish to another.

I just kind of taking a page out of the Catholic playbook there. That was the initial report. Then we had report from Nick Sorter, who's a MAGA, kind of on the ground pro-ice reporter, reporter, if you want to call it that. And he was saying that Pavino was being stripped of his title as the commander at large of the Border Patrol. It was going to be sent to California. The Atlantic also reported that. And with the additional piece of information that he was going to soon be retiring,

Trisha McLaughlin, the spokes which at the Department of Homeland Security pushed back on that and sent out a post saying that Bevino is respected, blah, blah, blah, blah. The administration loves him. He's so important, and we love our little mini-fascists. And then CNN came out with another report indicating that Bovino had been locked out of his social media accounts because he was so busy being a reply guy to people that were mad that his goons murdered a U.S. citizen. among the people he replied to was my good friend Bill Crystal yesterday. He said that people that choose illegal aliens over American citizens are the problem. That was Bovino's thought for Bill. I think that's kind of strange because, in this case at least, the person in question is the American citizen that Bovino's men murdered

and then who he posthumously smeared and denigrated and lied about. So I don't know who's on the side of the American citizen, but in this case, I think it would be those of us who wish the American citizen that his team killed was still with us. So just taking it all together. I think what we know is that Vovino's role is in some way, you're going to be reduced. What exactly that looks like remains to be seen. whether it's just him and his little traveling circus of Nazis going to Phoenix or Boston or Atlanta next, you know, or whether he's pushed it aside and replaced, you know, with another psychopath. All that remains to be seen. To me, I think that the Tricia McLaughlin quote is the most relevant thing right now.

Because if the administration thinks that they can get out of the time, of this mess by simply dialing back the rhetoric, dialing back the smears about the people that they killed, sending in the moderating force Tom Homan into Minneapolis. He with the $50,000 in the CAVA bag and with a commitment to deporting nonviolent criminals and who set all kinds of insane and extreme shit on Fox News over the years. If they put in that moderating force in Minneapolis and then kind of sideline Bovino a little bit, then they can just continue on with business as usual. And that ain't fucking good enough.

Bovino and his posse murdered somebody. We need accountability. He should be fired already. He should be brought in front of Congress. He should be investigated. Should be subpoenaed. That's what should be happening to Greg Bevino. So if the administration,

things so they can kind of sideline him quietly while still, you know, puffing him up and saying nice things about him because he's got Napoleon syndrome, you know, responds positively to compliments. And then they can just continue about their business. We cannot accept that. Those of us on the side of opposing this administration, opposing ICE, supporting the rights of every American to be able to walk the streets freely without worrying that they are going to be targeted, racially targeted by a masked goon who has no

care for their first, second, or Fourth Amendment rights. Like, if you are as outraged of this, we cannot, you know, we can be happy that it's a modest step that Povino is out of Minneapolis. We can be happy that potentially it's even another modest, positive step that he might

get to take an early retirement, you know, alongside so many of the other Trump fall guys in the past. but if they continue to fund this organization at a level where ICE is, well, see, he's obviously CBP, but if they continue to fund ICE and CBP at a level where they have more money than any other federal law enforcement, when they have more money than, you know, major militaries of other countries throughout the world, then we're going to still continue to see these results, you know?

Maybe the person will be slightly less of a psychopath. who's next. But Greg Rehnio didn't order those guys to kill Renee Good and Alex Pruddy. They created a situation where that was inevitable by allowing these guys to be all tacked up, you know, in their special forces helmets and, you know, their fucking huge weapons and their tactical gear and, you know, et cetera, et cetera, allow them to act like that they are invading Fallujah when they're going into a suburban neighborhood, you know, have them be mad. ask, tell them that they have impunity, allow them to menace people.

Like, if that stuff is still happening, and it's just the person at the head of it, like, you know, dials it back 10% and how much he encourages these fat sociopaths that are under his command. We're basically the same place we were six months ago, which was a terrible fucking place. We're basically back to where we were in Chicago. We're here in New Orleans, where there's a lot of transgender. a lot of people whose rights are being infringed upon. So, look, I think that we can take modest progress and be happy that, you know,

the little SS commander is out of Minneapolis and potentially out altogether. But, like, the opposition cannot let them have this face saving offering. And there are a couple other examples that I don't even to. A couple of other just kind of little anecdotes today. I mentioned on the pod that Trump had called. called walls. Trump also called Fry. He is framing both of those conversations as progress being made. Tom Holman's going to be out there. This is similar. Again, it's like, it's better they're communicating than not. You know, it's better that they're having a point

person now there in Minneapolis who is, who is allegedly, you know, going to be escalating in some way. But it doesn't change the underlying problem. Like, ICE has been funded more than any other federal law enforcement agency. So what are those people going to be doing, right? Not sitting around, you know, licking lollipops, all right? They're still going to be out there. All they're doing is kind of trying to modestly look at the situation in Minneapolis and do a few things that, you know, for once doesn't add fire to the powder cap.

And so again, like that's better than doing the opposite. It's better than escalating. It's better than doing the insurrection, accenting the National Guard like Mike Lee has argued for Senator Mike Lee of Utah. But the underlying effort is the same. This goes also to the Christy-Nome thing. I have a little bit of an issue with Democrats on this. There have been some Democrats focused on pushing out Christie-Nome. And I understand that this in traditional politics is kind of something you do.

If you're in the out-party, you want to scalp, you want the, you know, you want the intersection. should have to demonstrate that they're going to make changes. You find a fall person. Christyneau leaving doesn't do anything for me. It doesn't do anything for anyone. They need to defund and claw back the money that has already been funded to these lawless agencies. Like if you replace Christy Gnome with what?

With some other Maga goon, how is that going to make anything better? I don't see it. Stephen Miller will still. be there. The vice president will still be there. They're fully on board with this program. So, you know, I just, I just want us to all be wary of a situation here where the administration pitches that they have, you know, made some changes. They've put in the moderating force. Tom Homan in Minneapolis. They're maybe even changing the DHS secretary. They're, they feel bad about some of the language that they used about Alex Prety and now we can just move forward

business as usual. No, no. Like this was a constitutional crisis. This was an assault on the rights of Americans here in New Orleans and Chicago and Memphis and all these places before they murdered two people. Okay. So they've murdered two people and like going back to the pre-M Minneapolis status quo is not is not good enough. Okay. It was the pre-M Minneapolis status quo that led us to a place that we ended up with two people getting murdered by the government. All right. So,

like, I just, like that to me needs to be the red line for people opposing this. And that's what we need to be proposing to, you know, the kind of Republicans and business community types that want an off ramp here and want to save face. Like what they want is to be able to declare victory in Minneapolis,

you know, with only, you know, the two dead people. And then kind of go back to, to how they were doing things before, and that can't be acceptable. The pressure needs to be kept up.

To this point, you can see how they're talking about this. In some ways, it's a victory. I know people are probably like, Tim, take some Ws, but it's just too serious, okay? It's just too serious to let them get away with us. And so I want to play for you just one example of where I think they're trying to take this and where they're going.

And that's Ted Cruz in an interview earlier today. I think the administration could do better is the tone with which they're describing this. That immediately when an incident like this happens, they come out guns blazing, that we took out a violent terrorist, hooray. What he thinks that the administration could do better on his tone. He was not happy that they called Alex Predy a terrorist.

I'm also not happy they called Alex Predi a terrorist. His parents weren't happy. His priest wasn't happy. I'm not happy. people are mad. So we all can agree with Ted Cruz on that. The lying from the administration is unacceptable and disgusting and depraved. But the problem with the administration's actions is that the tone with which they've smeared Alex Prattie. The problem with the administration's actions is that they fucking killed Alex Prattie and they killed René Good and they pushed down a woman to the

ground standing next to Alex Freddie. And they've been pushing down and menacing and harassing and bruising and pepper spraying people expressing their First Amendment rights in Minneapolis and all over the country for a year now. I mean, fuck, when did I interview George Redis? It feels like a lifetime ago. Like last summer, he's an American citizen who was detained for three days by these sane goons. Okay?

They've been doing this for almost a year now. The problem is not the tone. And these guys want their off ramp to be, you know, we acknowledge that the tone was a little off from Stephen Miller. He gets a little hot. And, you know, we acknowledge that new face dog killing Christy, it was maybe not the best. So we're going to replace her with another person who is still going to send mass thugs into the streets to menace people. Like, no, no.

They need to claw back the money that they gave to ICE last year. They need only agents in the streets that show their name and show their face. They need to stop the entire mass deportation program. I don't expect them to do that. As long as Stephen Miller is there, that is what they're going to be doing. It was on the placards. That's what the administration is. But if they want to change course to work with Democrats on the Hill to change course,

like those are the demands. All right. We read through on the pot today all Rokana's demands. I agree with every single one of them. All right. Like they, the problem here is not the tone. The tone is depraved and atrocious and reflects that they all have black soul.

All right. So the way that they treated the man that they killed is disgusting. And hopefully they'll receive their eternal reward for that. But that's not the problem here. If they start being a little nice. Cruz, this is kind of like the thing they do where they're like, oh, you know, the left is just mad about the mean tweets. No, I'm not mad about it.

I like the tweets. I like the tone. It shows us who they really are. Okay. I want them to be ghoulish, right? I want J.D. Vance and Stephen Miller to call a man who was just videotaping and was exercising his First Amendment rights an assassin. I want people to see who they are. I don't, the tone is wrong, but that's not the problem.

The problem is the policy, and it's got to stop. Or else that there's just going to be more examples of this. We're going to go through this all over and over again. I like how Bill Crystal put it. Me and him are just on the same wavelength today, as you heard earlier. He writes his home into Minnesota. Trump speaks with walls. Levitt distances Trump a bit from Nome.

All show Trump's feeling heat. But these gestures mean as much as Putin suggesting he's changed and wants peace with Ukraine. Don't fall for it. Insists. ICE and CBP off the streets. What he said. So that's where we're at on this. And I think that's the next inflection point.

They're going to try to look for some face saving and move on. And the people this country got to keep up. the heat because Gregory Bevino and the masked murderers that killed Alex Preti, whose names we still don't know, are just on the streets of another city right now, or they will be tomorrow. And that's not acceptable. They work for us. They are agents of the state in a free country and a democracy.

We pay their bills. There are employees. They cannot kill us. anonymously and then just move on. They can't, the state can't just send mass goons out into the streets to kill the American people and then send them to other cities and do a little, do a little PR cleanup where they say, well, you know, we're going to look into it. Now, we are going to look into it.

The Minnesota government needs to look into it, right? These folks need to be charged and investigated, and I assume ultimately indicted based on what I've seen, and they need to be off the streets. So that's where I'm out on all this. It is worth noting that they recognize that they're over their skis. Better than the alternative, better than them escalating right now, better than them sending troops in, but not anywhere in the ballpark of good enough. not in the ballpark and we should demand more from our elected leaders

and the people that are paid to protect us to protect and serve their fellow Americans because they're not doing that right now they're doing the opposite. Subscribe to the feed. We get some real good stuff coming for you tomorrow.

So I appreciate you guys tell your friends and if there's breaking news we'll be keeping you posted.