It Could Happen Here - Executive Disorder: Alex Pretti Shooting, DHS Funding Bill & Rojava

Episode Date: January 30, 2026

The gang discuss the killing of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol in Minneapolis, conflicting accounts of the shooting, a DHS bill in the Senate, and updates on Syria and the FED.  Sources: https://ww...w.youtube.com/watch?si=fHjlCV6d7gVSHjiN&t=1222&v=Amhb8PK_an8&feature=youtu.be https://www.foxnews.com/video/6388288892112  https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/25/politics/video/bovino-dana-bash-full-interview-digvid  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/01/26/greg-bovino-agents-victims-pretti-minneapolis-shooting/88361659007/  https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.229758/gov.uscourts.mnd.229758.107.0.pdf  https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.229758/gov.uscourts.mnd.229758.109.0.pdf  https://www.startribune.com/ice-raids-minnesota/601546426  https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/115968824541011312  https://bsky.app/profile/vanhollen.senate.gov/post/3mdg7b7k5nc2q  https://newrepublic.com/article/205723/dem-senator-harsh-new-takedown-trump-hits-home-breaking-point  https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-8/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-287  https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/2015826728644391063?s=20 https://x.com/MayorFrey/status/2015917704725622985?s=20 https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/01/greg-bovino-demoted-minneapolis-border-patrol/685770/  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIM7ap12vPo https://x.com/BillMelugin_/status/2016564180757725221?s=20  https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/27/politics/stephen-miller-alex-pretti-trump  https://x.com/cspan/status/2016557604282011748?s=20  https://prospect.org/2026/01/26/ice-trump-democrats-funding-department-homeland-security-alex-pretti-minnesota/ https://www.axios.com/2026/01/26/senate-democrats-dhs-funding-government-shutdown https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/27/us/alex-pretti-protesters-minneapolis-invs https://www.axios.com/local/boston/2025/04/29/patriots-plane-guantanamo https://www.audacy.com/national/sports/pats-team-plane-apparently-used-for-ice-deportation-flights https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/04/29/new-england-patriots-charter-jet-guantanamo https://apnews.com/article/ihan-omar-vinegar-attack-minneapolis-385a30eaf6acc40d6ba5c6c45c09304dSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. This is Ryder Strong, and I have a new podcast called The Red Weather. In 1995, my neighbor and a trainer disappeared from a commune. It was nature and trees and praying and drugs. So no, I am not your guru. And back then, I lied to everybody. They have had this case for 30 years.
Starting point is 00:00:24 I'm going back to my hometown to uncover the truth. Listen to the red weather on the eye heart. Art Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Saturday, May 2nd, country's biggest stars will be in Austin, Texas. At our 2026 IHard Country Festival presented by Capital One, tickets are on sale now. Get yours before they sell out at Ticketmaster.com. That's Ticketmaster.com. Whether it is getting swatted or just hateful messages online, there is a lot of harm
Starting point is 00:00:55 and even just reading the comments. That's cybersecurity expert, Camille Stewart Glouster, on the Therapy for Black Girls podcast. Every season is a chance to grow. And the Therapy for Black Girls podcast is here to walk with you. I'm Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, and each week we dive into real conversations that help you move with more clarity and confidence.
Starting point is 00:01:15 This episode, we're breaking down what really happens to your information online and how to protect yourself with intention. Listen to Therapy for Black Girls on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. You know Roll Doll. He thought up Willie Wonka and the BFG. But did you know he was a spy? In the new podcast, The Secret World of Roll Doll,
Starting point is 00:01:38 I'll tell you that story, and much, much more. What? You probably won't believe it either. Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been. Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you. I was a spy.
Starting point is 00:01:52 Listen to the Secret World of Roll Doll on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Also media. This is It Could Happen here, Executive Disorder, our weekly newscast covering what's happening in the White House, the crumbling world, and what it means for you. I'm Garrison Davis. Today I'm joined by Mia Wong, James Stout, and Robert Evans.
Starting point is 00:02:20 This episode, we're covering the week of January 21st to January 28th. Massive snowstorm across most of the country, at least the real parts of the country, is the east coast and the south now. And wow, there is a lot of snow. It makes me feel kind of like a penguin, just walking off into the mountains by myself weathering the weather. Finally, I feel akin to the president who is now also a suicidal penguin. At the wrong end of the globe.
Starting point is 00:02:56 Yeah. Yeah, well, you know, as soon as they start the remigration, they're going to be deporting penguins to Greenland. gets into Greenland. Yeah. It's held in a military detention camp off of Greenland now that we might own a tiny bit of our military base. Still very unclear what the details of that Greenland deal are. No.
Starting point is 00:03:16 He just wanted to be able to say he made a deal. And I don't know if it's going to be any different than the status quo was before, but he'll claim victory and so will his supporters and we'll all move on. As we kind of already have. Yep. There's too much other bullshit going on. That is the motto for 2026. Some of that bullshit is the third immigration enforcement related shooting in Minneapolis in just three weeks.
Starting point is 00:03:44 James, do you want to start with that? So, yeah, I was in Minneapolis. I was actually just in Minneapolis airport when this happened. On Saturday of this week, Alex Preti was shot by two CBP agents in Minneapolis. Well, he was filming an immigration raid in which ICE agents attempted to be. to sue someone into a donut shop that seemed to have locked the doors. Preti seemed to be trying to assist a woman who had been pushed to the ground by agents when the agents grabbed him, mazed him, beat him, disarmed him, and then shot him several times.
Starting point is 00:04:17 Prettie was 37. It was a Veterans Affairs ICU nurse. And when this confrontation with immigration agents began, he was legally carrying a SIG-P-20 handgun concealed inside his waistband. I can go on and summarize the video for anyone who hasn't seen it. It's obviously quite distressing. So, you know, if you're going to watch it, just know that you're going to see someone die. Video shows several agents beating Preti as one grabs a handgun from his inside waistband holster.
Starting point is 00:04:47 Very quickly after this, 10 shots are fired by at least two agents. You can hear at one point an agent shouting gun, gun. He's got a gun. Yeah. And then in the aftermath, another video shows agents asking, where is the gun? So it doesn't appear that the agent who cleared Preti's gun informed the other agents that that had happened. Though the agent that first fired at Prettie was standing right behind the agent that
Starting point is 00:05:16 disarmed him and is literally like looking down at where the gun is being removed as he then seconds later starts shooting. Yeah. Pretty falls to the ground. Then more agents fire on his body as it lays flat on the ground. Yeah, the CBP initial use of force review, which was sent to Congress today, suggested that... On Wednesday. Yeah, this is Wednesday the 28th.
Starting point is 00:05:41 Two agents fired. So we know at least two agents fired, right? It's not entirely clear. I don't think if all of these were CBP agents, but at least one of the agents who fired shots was an eight-year CBP veteran and a range safety officer. Greg Bevino has declined to. identify them because he said that would be doxing. That's not what that word usually means. No. DHS has claimed that Preti had two extra magazines on his person, but I haven't seen any evidence
Starting point is 00:06:15 of that. What they provided was a photograph of a SIGP320 with a red dot site and a slide lot backed, clearly on the front seat of a vehicle with two charge cords next to it, right? That's not normally how evidence is treated in a crime. That is an unusual. sure way to go about that. But if mildly, the DHS secretary Christy Nome has told reporters that Prattie attacked and impeded law enforcement and was brandishing his weapon. Videos don't show that. The only time that you see his weapon is when it is removed by the agent who takes it out of his waistband. Pretti appears to be holding his black cell phone for the entirety of this interaction. Yeah. And it's very clear that it's a cell phone, right? CBP agents are inches.
Starting point is 00:07:00 obviously from the phone in his face. There is no reasonable claim. No, as a rule throughout the interaction, there was never any confusion that would have led them to believe he had a gun in his hand or to be unaware that he had been disarmed. Yeah, there's no argument for that. No, you can't make a case for that reasonably.
Starting point is 00:07:20 People will do it unreasonably, I don't care. The allegation that he attacked them was repeated by FBI director Cash Patel in the interview he gave to Fox News. I'm going to give a little video of Nones' claim. This individual impeded the law enforcement officers and attacked them. State the facts as they unfolded on the street today. We were doing a targeted operation against an illegal criminal,
Starting point is 00:07:45 and this individual came with a weapon and dozens of rounds of ammunition and attacked them. And these agents took action to defend their lives and to defend the lives of the people around them and acted according to their training. CBP commander at large, potentially no longer commander at large, Gregory Bovino, claimed that Preti had assaulted federal agents and throughout a press conference that Bovino gave referred to Preti as a suspect and the people who killed him as victims.
Starting point is 00:08:19 Bovino also claimed that Preti planned to, quote, massacre law enforcement. Was he simply walking by and just happened to walk into a law enforcement? situation and try to direct traffic and stand in the middle of the road and then assault, delay, and obstruct law enforcement? Or was he there for a reason? Did he fall victim to that violent and heated rhetoric by a Mayor Frye, Governor Walts? Look, Dana, they're trying to portray border patrol agents and ICE agents as Gestapo, Nazi, and many other words, did this individual fall victim as many others have to that type of human? heated rhetoric. I want to stay focused on this incident right now because what you were saying is
Starting point is 00:09:03 that he went there to try to stop this law enforcement operation. All of the video that we have seen shows him documenting it with his cell phone, which is a lawful thing to do. And the only time he seemed to interact with law enforcement is when they went after him when he was trying to help an individual who law enforcement pushed down. So where do you have the evidence to show that he was trying to impede that law enforcement operation. Sure, Dan, at first, he was there in the scene. He was in the scene actively impeding and assaulting law enforcement to the point. But that's not illegal.
Starting point is 00:09:42 He wasn't impeding it. He was filming it, which is a legal thing to do in the United States of America. Dan, let's don't freeze frame adjudicate this now. He was there for a reason, and that reason was to impede law enforcement to the point. minutes do you have of that. And here's a good point, Dana, is the fact that de-escalation techniques were utilized during this action. Those de-escalation techniques, whether it was physically trying to remove them from that law enforcement scene, that active law enforcement scene in which law enforcement... I wanted to include a little bit more there because I feel like that's one of the few times we've seen him not just able to deliver his...
Starting point is 00:10:20 Right, where someone's pushed a little. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well, and there's a thing in the video that I think is really effective. where, you know, you can hear him lying about the video and then the video is playing next to it. And you can just see what is happening. And then he's just saying shit.
Starting point is 00:10:37 Yeah, it's a good piece of television news goes. That's not the worst piece I've seen. Him saying they use de-escalation techniques as you watch half a dozen guys mate him in the face and then beat him is, I mean, there's this line I think a lot about in Chapter 7 of 1984, which was the party told you not to believe your eyes and ears. it was their final most important command.
Starting point is 00:11:00 I mean, if this ain't that, then I don't know what is. Yeah. I mean, yeah, they don't even try to convincingly lie at this point. They just keep to the narrative that has been set at the top. Yeah. Well, not even in this case at the top. It was kind of set at like the upper middle. Yes.
Starting point is 00:11:16 The top has been backing off from this narrative, at least a little bit. We'll get to that kind of back and forth in a sec. But, I mean, it's very clear from this that they just consider blowing a whistle to be impeding. Like that's all the justification that they need. They consider his presence there. As long as you are physically presence there. Yeah. Anything you do that they don't like is assaulting an officer at this point.
Starting point is 00:11:37 Yes. It's kind of a minor point, but also his pronunciation of Gestapo. Stapo, he does that every time. It's like, dude, we know, we know. Yeah, yeah. He's like he's wearing that fucking coat. He's wearing the outfits. He's wearing the outfit.
Starting point is 00:11:50 He's like, come on. And yeah, no, it's, it's pretty insane. Yeah. I love the articles that are like, no, he's just wearing a traditional old-style military coat. It's not a staph-o coat. Guys, come on, man. I've seen a lot of Border Patrol agents, guys. No one else wears that coat.
Starting point is 00:12:11 He picked that coat because of how it looks. To my knowledge, that's not a uniform piece for the Border Patrol. No, and he's never been in the military. Yeah. You know what he isn't? It's a secret police unit. Anyway, sorry. Yeah, no, I think it's a good...
Starting point is 00:12:25 It's worth eating that one. I want to talk about this ACLU lawsuit, right? So in sworn testimony, which were part of this ongoing lawsuit, multiple witnesses said Preti did not brandish or draw his handgun. Quote, I have read a statement from DHS about what happened and it is wrong. The man did not approach the agents with a gun. He approached him with a camera. He was just trying to help a woman get up and they took him to the ground.
Starting point is 00:12:47 One said, another witness, a doctor, was prevented from performing CPR. quote, none of the ICE agents who were near the victim were performing CPR, they said. Agents demanded the physician's license, which evidently they did not have, right? They just ran out of their house in their pajamas. Their testimony continues, quote, I could tell the victim was in critical condition. I insisted the ICE agents let me assess him. They appeared to be operating under the assumption that these people were ICE, some of them were CVP, I should just say that. They also noted that agents, quote, appeared to be counting his bullet wounds.
Starting point is 00:13:20 Yeah. Jesus Christ. And there is video that shows him doing bizarre things to his remains that are not within the remit of trauma care or first aid in my experience and training, which is pretty significant when it comes to like this exact scenario. The documents that released today said that they placed a chest seals on him. They were placing chess seals on him? Yeah. Yeah. That might explain it.
Starting point is 00:13:44 It looks like they're sort of pulling up on his shirt. I mean, this whole, again, this whole instance very, very clearly documented. documented with video. Multiple angles. After this shooting, an agent is on top of his body screaming for scissors to cut off his clothing. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:13:59 And then later, they placed chest seals, according to that document that was released to Congress. Yeah. Weird not to carry scissors in your first day kit when you were out of trauma shoes. But mine equivalent, I guess.
Starting point is 00:14:10 I mean, these guys don't know what they were doing. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. That's the thing, right? Bavino also noted in his press conference that the agents were still at work, but they had been redeployed for their
Starting point is 00:14:20 safety outside of the Twin Cities. Following the shooting, a vigil was held, and there were protests, including some armed presence in the protests. Minneapolis Police Department attempted to hold the space, both to keep the vigil away, and earlier that day they had refused to leave when told to do so by federal police. Later that night, they deployed extensive lethal munitions to clear the vigil. Let's go on ad break, and then return to discuss the back-in-forth characterization of the shooting from Trump's cabinet. Like, if we're on the air here, and I literally have my contract here, and I'm looking at, you know, as soon as I sign this, I'm going to get a seven-figure check. I've told them I won't be working here in two weeks.
Starting point is 00:15:12 From the underground clubs that shaped global music to the pastors and creatives who built the cultural empire, the Atlanta Ears podcast uncovers the stories behind one of the most influential cities in the world. The thing I love about Atlanta is that it's a city of high. hustlers man each episode explores a different chapter of atlanta's rise featuring conversations with ludicrous will packer pastor jamaal brian dj drama and more the full series is available to listen to now i really just had never experienced anything like what was going on in the city as far as like you know seeing so many young black affluent creatives in all walks of life the church had dwindled almost to nothing and god said this is your assignment and that's like how you know like okay oh you You from Atlanta for real.
Starting point is 00:15:56 I ain't got to say too much. I'm a Grady, baby. Shut up. Listen to Atlanta is on the I Heart Radio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Ryder Strong, and I have a new podcast called The Red Weather. It was many and many a year ago in a kingdom by the sea. In 1995, my neighbor and a trainer disappeared from a commune.
Starting point is 00:16:18 It was hard to wrap your head around. It was nature and trees and praying and drugs. So no, I am not your... And back then, I lied to my parents, I lied to police, I lied to everybody. There were years right where I could not say your name. I've decided to go back to my hometown in Northern California, interview my friends, family, talk to police, journalists, whomever I can to try to find out what actually happened. Isn't it a little bit weird that they obsess over hippies in the woods and not the obvious boyfriend?
Starting point is 00:16:48 They have had this case for 30 years. I'll teach you sons of a . . . . come around here in my wife. Boom. Boom. This is The Red Weather. Listen to the Red Weather on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The moments that shape us often begin with a simple question. What do I want my life to look like now? I'm Dr. Joy Harden Bradford.
Starting point is 00:17:14 And on therapy for Black Girls, we create space for honest conversations about identity, relationships, mental health, and the choices that help us grow. As cybersecurity expert, Camille Stewart Gloucester reminds us, We are in a divisive time where our comments are weaponized against us. And so what we find is a lot of black women are standing up and speaking out because they feel the brunt of the pain. Each week, we explore the tools and insights that help you move with purpose. Whether you're navigating something new or returning to yourself. If you're ready for thoughtful guidance and grounded support, this is the place for you.
Starting point is 00:17:53 Listen to Therapy for Black Girls on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. You know Roll Doll, the writer who thought up Willie Wonka, Matilda, and the BFG. But did you know he was also a spy? Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been. Our new podcast series, The Secret World of Roll Doll, is a wild journey through the hidden chapters of his extraordinary, controversial life. His job was literally to seduce the wives of powerful Americans. What?
Starting point is 00:18:22 And he was really good at. You probably won't believe it either. Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you, the guy was a spy. Did you know Dahl got cozy with the Roosevelt's? Played poker with Harry Truman and had a long affair with a congresswoman. And then he took his talents to Hollywood, where he worked alongside Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock
Starting point is 00:18:41 before writing a hit James Bond film. How did this secret agent wind up as the most successful children's author ever? And what darkness from his covert past seeped into the stories we read as kids. The true story is, stranger than anything he ever wrote. Listen to the secret world of Roll Dahl on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. We are back.
Starting point is 00:19:07 The day after the shooting, Cash Patel went on Fox News to say that it is against the law to bring a firearm to a protest. Nope. Here's a clip. As Christy said, you cannot bring a firearm loaded with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It's that simple. You don't have that right to bring. break the law and incite violent. Yeah, that's wrong.
Starting point is 00:19:31 In Minnesota, it is not against the law for permit holders to carry a firearm well attending a protest. And it's arguable whether what Prattie was doing is even, quote, unquote, attending a protest. Mm-hmm. Yeah. These sorts of spontaneous mobilizations against ICE are not like a formalized. We are protesting in this location at this point. It's not a protest rally.
Starting point is 00:19:52 It's community mobilizations. The term of protest is going to be applied a little bit loosely. Now, the DHS statement, three hours after the shooting, made this claim, quote, this looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement, unquote. This is the phrase that Bovino said verbatim at the press conference on Saturday following the shooting. Miller said something similar on Twitter as he was tweeting at Democrat politicians,
Starting point is 00:20:23 quote, a would-be assassin tried to murder federal law enforcement, and a domestic terrorist tried to assassinate federal law enforcement, unquote. Christy Noem also had a press conference the day of the shooting, where she said, quote, when you perpetuate violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and perpetuate violence, that is the definition of domestic terrorism. This individual who came with weapons and ammunition to stop a law enforcement operation of federal law enforcement officers committed an act of domestic terrorism, unquote. But by Monday, the White House began softly backtracking previous DHS claims about this shooting. Press Secretary Carolyn
Starting point is 00:21:10 Levitt said that she has not heard President Trump characterize Prattie as a domestic terrorist. That same day, Fox and Friends asked DOJ attorney Todd Blanche about whether Prattie committed domestic terrorism, and he replied like this. With all due respects, sir, my question is more pointed, do you believe your colleagues may have gone farther? You are an attorney at DOJ, 18 U.S. Code 2331, it has a legal definition of domestic terrorism, and it doesn't appear to most of the country that have watched the available video, and we'll see if there's body cam video. I'd love to know if that's going to come out, if there was such a thing, but it does not appear to have met that definition of domestic terrorism. So I'm just sort of wondering how you in the DOJ are viewing whether your colleagues may have gone too far.
Starting point is 00:21:58 Look, I don't think anybody thinks that they were comparing what happened on Saturday to the legal definition of domestic terrorism. What we saw was a very violent altercation. And I am not going to prejudge the facts. You're right. There's a bunch of video that's out there. There's a bunch of video that we haven't seen yet in the minutes leading up to what happened and in what happened afterwards. and you're right, to the extent there's body cam or other videos that witnesses are still providing to us. So I'm not describing it as anything except for a tragedy.
Starting point is 00:22:31 That's pretty, pretty wild. Two days after, Kristine O'm tried to literally give a definition of domestic terrorism at a press conference. And then DOJ attorneys just claiming, no, it's not the real legal definition of domestic terrorism. Yeah. This word is just a rhetorical tool for the administration to deploy at will. Yeah, we just were using it because we killed a guy and we wanted to shut down discussion. Yeah. Yeah, and when we didn't stick the landing because there were multiple angles on video,
Starting point is 00:23:01 now we got to find something else. Yeah. And we just did this. How many weeks ago was the... No, I mean, this whole incident shows how vital documenting interactions like this can be and how much public opinion is something that is not just fully dictated by administration. statements. Like, they tried to deploy a narrative, which after enough circulated, documented footage contradicted, public opinion of this incident formed in pretty strong opposition
Starting point is 00:23:31 to the administration's claims. Yeah. Yeah. This has penetrated into a lot of places that are under ordinary circumstances, either extremely apolitical or very conservative. I am trying to remember, honestly, the last event that I saw between this and 2020 and the George Floyd uprising that had this kind of penetration into mainstream non-political society, I remember one of the biggest things that I saw was this moment of, oh, actually, this specific shooting has gone to a point where it's reaching people who normally would never hear about this stuff was, there's an NFL commentator named Kurt Warner, who used to be, he was a very famous quarterback. The only thing he ever talks about is quarterback play in football.
Starting point is 00:24:18 This is the only thing he ever does. I'm not 100% sure about this, but when I look back, I couldn't find him saying anything about George Floyd. And Kurt Warner came out and gave a statement about how this shooting was a horror and that the administration was lying about it. And you saw this sort of rattling through, again, very, very conservative sports circles, which again, an NFL circle, specifically where this kind of stuff never really penetrates.
Starting point is 00:24:48 This weekend, you know, as this sort of murder was happening, the NFC and AFC championship games were going on in the sort of immediate wake of this. And these are, for people who don't follow football at all, these are the, after the Super Bowl, this is the semifinals. The winner of these two games goes to the Super Bowl. These are the second most important games of the entire NFL season. And fans at both of these games booed the national. anthem, a thing I have never heard of before at a football.
Starting point is 00:25:18 This is a football game. Yeah, that's wild. Right. Like, the beginning of most football games, there's a bunch of troops holding the flag. And people, they didn't do this in 2020. They were booing the national anthem. So one of these games was being played in Denver and the other one was being played in Seattle.
Starting point is 00:25:38 And in the game in Seattle, the Fox broadcasts kept cutting out the national anthem because people kept chanting fuck ice. so they would just literally be cutting the audio anytime that happened and this just kept happening through the entire course of this I have never seen anything like this breakthrough into sports like this
Starting point is 00:25:54 it's been breaking into there's a whole bunch of stories about just random groups on a Reddit where it's sort of breaking through into where you're getting statements from like oh god I wish I remember who on Blue Sky saw this from but the person who runs the subreddit of a word that's like
Starting point is 00:26:09 playing your cat's butt like bongo drums without a statement about this? I'm glad they finally spoke up, honestly, you know. We've all been waiting. No. But like I saw this in spaces where we're like climbing forums or climbing subredits. No, because they just shot a nurse in the head. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:26:32 Yeah. Yeah. This is the second time they did it. And the thing to me that I think is really significant about this happening at NFL games, right? One of the two teams that was, playing in the game in Denver is the New England Patriots, right? The New England Patriots are famously very, very close to Trump as an organization. Their owner is very close to Trump. So I had remembered a story from last year about, so the Patriots have a jet that is the Patriots
Starting point is 00:26:57 jet, that they fly all their players around in that has giant letters the Patriots on it. Yeah. That is technically run through a charter company. But, you know, I remember last year there was a story about how their jet was doing flights to Guantanamo Bay. Sure. That makes sense for the Patriots jet. Yeah. Yeah. Right. This is the kind of organizations that we're dealing with here, right? And while I was looking into the story about the Patriots jet being used to do things to move, apparently not detainees to Guantanamo, but apparently just military people and supplies, which they do a lot, I found a completely unrelated story about a different Patriots jet in, during the Biden administration,
Starting point is 00:27:33 doing deportation flights to Honduras. And this isn't considered an ideological thing. No, that's just money. Like, this is the kind of conservatism. You're dealing, yeah, you know, and I mean, this is technically is the contractors who are doing this, but, you know, it's the plane with the Patriots logo on it, and they were doing deportation flights under Biden, like four years, three or four years ago. And now people are booing the national anthem, enchanting fuck ice. A lot of the stuff that we've talked about, and we're going to talk about about the way the Trump administration has been backing off of this is because they have been forced to watch the entire country go, holy shit, you just murdered this guy. And then lied about it. you just executed him in the street.
Starting point is 00:28:12 Yeah, and lied about it. Yeah, I think the lying. And you can just see them. And this is also the second time they've done this in a couple of weeks. Like the lying thing is like, I think for a lot of people, that's the really insulting thing. It's obviously a tragedy to have someone be killed by federal law enforcement like this. Yeah. But the blatantness of the lying, I think, is what really activated people here.
Starting point is 00:28:34 Yeah, because this is for years they've skirted by on the situations like the written house thing, where you can kind of see what happens, but depending on what you bring into it, ideologically, that can look like two different things, right? Depending on whether you think those protesters are dangerous or not or whatever, that's a video that everyone saw the same video and took something different out of it.
Starting point is 00:28:57 That's not the case with this video or really with the Renee Good video for most people. And it's really jarring for them. Most people who were not political, because that's what we're talking about, It's like the sheer number of people who do not normally wait into this stuff who are making a comment. They would see one of these videos that is much more like, if you're just kind of coming in
Starting point is 00:29:17 and watching it, it's kind of unclear what's happening. And they would go, oh, it's another big con. I'm just not going to get involved with it. People are arguing about what this is. Let them argue, I'm going to go on with my life. This is very clear what's happening, very clear that they're lying. And it's just upsetting. It's deeply upsetting to even people who don't normally think about this shit.
Starting point is 00:29:35 Yeah. And I think part of that, too, is also, you know, There were a lot of people who didn't get involved with the Renee Good shooting because, you know, even then, people were still like, oh, well, maybe it's complicated. But once you've seen the second shooting in two weeks where the line from the administration is exactly the same and you have video images again. Yeah. That's how you get someone like Kurt Warner, who is a faith family football guy. He's very open about being a Christian, is very open about, he doesn't talk about politics, but he's very obviously conservative in a way that he doesn't think is political. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:30:06 And he looks at this and goes, holy shit, they murdered this guy and the government's lying about it. And that's a kind of breakthrough moment in all of this. I've seen a lot of stuff from like folks in the gun community, like who you wouldn't normally expect to be critical of the Trump administration being critical. Yeah. Because the Trump administration has come out with just like insane. They're repeating like anti-second amendment talking points. Yep. I also saw his name's Tony Thomas, but he was previously the commander.
Starting point is 00:30:36 of Special Operations Command, right, has been sharing. And unfortunately, AI, quote, unquote, enhanced photo of this shooting. God, God. That, I need to talk a little about that, but please continue. Yeah. It's remarkable that you've got someone whose job has been killing people for the United States government, right, who, like, retired to a role of investment banking, who doesn't normally make statements in public about immigration policy.
Starting point is 00:31:03 But, like, again, this one is kind of broken containment, right? Like, they saw the police shoot a man in the back multiple times in broad daylight from multiple angles. And, yeah, this one's been really hard for them to spin. Yeah. One of the things that, you know, when you talk about sort of read it as a site of this, right? One of the things on the front page of Reddit for a while that day was just a thing from like R-slash-pix, where it's a picture of a frame in this shooting and that it's a picture of a Nazi officer with a gun to the back of the head of a prisoner they're about to shoot. and it's almost identical frame for frame.
Starting point is 00:31:38 And that's the kind of thing that's just going around on like the front page of Reddit. Part of what I think is happening here is they got very convinced to their ability to kind of just brute force their own reality
Starting point is 00:31:47 over what actually happened and maybe they gambled too hard. Yeah. So much of the story is like the ultimate conservative nightmare of the government physically disarming you than executing you.
Starting point is 00:31:58 Yeah. And that sequence of events is I think also in part what has created this pretty consistent turn away from the Trump administration's the DHS, this like initial statement on what happened here, which the administration themselves
Starting point is 00:32:11 have started to roll back on after the public rejected this claim that they kept making on him being like a terrorist, him intending to massacre law enforcement, all these things that they have no way to actually prove. On Tuesday, Stephen Miller pulled CNN that they are, evaluating why the CBP team may not have been following White House approved protocol. and that the initial statement from DHS following the shooting was, quote, based on reports from CBP on the ground, unquote. On Wednesday, the DHS spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, repeated this claim on Fox Business.
Starting point is 00:32:48 Secretary Nome accused Alex Preti of being a domestic terrorist. Is the administration standing by that language? So initial statements were made after reports from CBP on the ground. That was a very chaotic scene. We know that our ICE law enforcement are facing rampant violence against them, a highly coordinated campaign. So that is why this investigation is so important so that we can get accurate facts to the American people. Trump has denied that Preddy was acting as an assassin and has called the shooting a quote unquote very unfortunate incident. But he has continued to say that Prattie should not have been carrying a gun.
Starting point is 00:33:29 Quote, you can't have guns, you can't walk in with guns, you just can't, unquote. Yeah. The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus has been pretty impressive. Yeah. I'll say that. Like, generally, right, like, especially organized gun owner groups in the United States tend to align very heavily with conservative politics. They have been, like, reinforcing that what Preti was doing was in nowhere legal and should
Starting point is 00:33:52 no way lead to you being killed. Yeah. As of Wednesday, we do know now that the Border Patrol agents in VIII, involved in the killing of Alex Pretti have been placed on administrative leave. Around January 26th, Trump struck some kind of deal with local officials, namely Mayor Frey and Governor Tim Walz. Local officials have said that, quote, unquote, some federal agents would begin leaving Minnesota. Bonvino is expected to return to California, with the Atlantic reporting that he's been stripped
Starting point is 00:34:24 of his, quote-unquote, commander at large title and has been locked out. of government social media accounts. Tom Homan has arrived in Minneapolis to take over immigration enforcement operations and local Minnesota law enforcement have ramped up their policing of protests, especially outside of hotels where ICE and Border Patrol agents have been staying.
Starting point is 00:34:46 And it's important to note as you're seeing a lot of stories about sort of ice pulling out of Minneapolis and, you know, an administration rollback because of the sort of Bovino movement. Everyone that I have talked to in Minneapolis and this is a fairly large number of people have all told me that everything on the ground remains the same. The raids are continuing and they want to make sure that everyone understands
Starting point is 00:35:08 that the raids are continuing and that the same kinds of things that ICE and the Border Patrol have been doing up until this point are continuing to happen under, I guess, quote unquote, new management. Yeah, I think they may have withdrawn some Border Patrol agents, right, but the bulk of the people they deployed were actually ICE agents. They, to my knowledge, have not been withdrawn home and is not exactly a, like a liberal figure when it comes to deportation to put it mildly. It might be like a change in the outward appearance, but the practice of what's going on. That has not changed. Do we want to just have any kind of final discussion on that AI enhanced image that's been circulating? Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, there's an AI enhanced image.
Starting point is 00:35:53 And this is, when I posted this, I've seen people comment that like, oh, it's more disinformation from the fascist. This is the opposite of that. Yeah. Someone AI enhanced a still frame from the video, because there's a question as to whether or not when one of the ICE agents disarmed Preddy, did he negligently discharge his firearm into the ground? And did that maybe spook them and cause the remaining chain of events? I don't think it's clear.
Starting point is 00:36:16 And the video is not super clear as to whether or not the gun is firing. It's kind of grainy. Yeah, we don't know that yet. So in like the new AI enhanced version, you literally see like a tongue of fire coming out of the barrel of the gun. And then a full round of 5, 5, 5, 6 seems to be exiting it. What, like, with the casing?
Starting point is 00:36:36 They just made shit up. It looks like it has the casing. It looks not like a firing gun looks. And the text on this is, this is from the AI info Twitter account. An enhanced video of a man who disarmed Alex Pruddy shows the gun allegedly misfiring as ICE agent runs with it,
Starting point is 00:36:52 which has also been said to have spooked other agents into firing. AI video also enhances the visuals of the bullets, so it would be clearly visible to the human eye. It was like, AI didn't hit shit. You had a five-year-old scribbling on it. And, you know, I don't know. I guess this could be them trying to be like, oh, it wasn't a federal agent's fault.
Starting point is 00:37:10 It's those damn sick P-320s that spooked everybody. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's like, number one, AI can't enhance things. Nothing can enhance a photo. That's not a thing that's real. You can't just, like, add details to a photo that weren't in in a way that's different from just photoshopping them in.
Starting point is 00:37:28 And that's what AI did. Someone said, add visuals of a bullet, and they did. And it's bad. It looks like a fucking sparkler is stuck in the end of a handgun. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:37:37 But yeah, it's just shit like this. That's just going to be everything. Like every clash, every murder, every controversial thing that happens, there's immediately going to be a bunch of different AI slot videos
Starting point is 00:37:50 and analysis. And what scares me most, or not even scares me, what I think is the biggest problem isn't even just the, straight up disinfo videos. It's the stuff where people are claiming, look, I did some research using this AI and it revealed this thing that isn't immediately visible to the naked eye, but this is clearly what really went on. Yeah. And how that's going to supercharge
Starting point is 00:38:09 fucking conspiracy theories about stuff and how the response when people are like, but the AI didn't enhance anything will just be like, you're not smarter than an AI. You don't know. Like, that's the kind of thing. It's just going to be annoying. Like the truth ecosystem is already so damaged. I certainly wouldn't say that this is going to definitely make everything worse, but it's going to make everything more annoying. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think I've seen this image that you're talking about, but I've seen a whole bunch of other, like, AI enhanced images of the shooting. It's specifically like the moment where, where, or like around the time that the agents are, firing into the back of Prattie. And it's mostly like AI sharpened images, but taken to such an
Starting point is 00:38:52 extreme extent that literally one of the heads of the Border Patrol agents is just missing. You know what? I wouldn't call that enhanced, but I'd say it's an improvement. You have to kind of like look for it because of how much movement is in the end. Right, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I've seen, I've seen this, the AI enhanced like, still from the pink jacket lady angle of the shooting. I've seen this image spread all around by by people showing like how how brutal this looks. And you don't need to spread
Starting point is 00:39:26 this AI sharpened version with the head missing. Like there is like regular stills that maybe are a little bit more fuzzy, but they actually are real. And you've seen a few other like AI altered images spreading around this shooting. Specifically there's been like AI altered images
Starting point is 00:39:43 of Alex Preti that like slightly changes his like facial proportions that have been used at some like memorials. have been spreading on the internet and that sort of stuff has been incredibly frustrating just to see the sort of proliferation of these AI images
Starting point is 00:40:00 into like the news cycle. I shared the enhanced image. That looks really bad. It's really bad. No, that's like cartoonish. Yeah, I've not seen that. Yeah, it's like a kindergartner. It's unreal. You don't need to do this. Like the people that have seen the footage knows what happened. You don't need to spread these fake images. Like public opinion is already formed on this.
Starting point is 00:40:19 Yeah. We'll go on ad break again, but I think to close this section, I'll play this short clip from the Minnesota Timberwolves game, which is a basketball game, I believe. Yeah. Which they held a moment of silence for Prattie and people chanted towards the end. I'll shorten the moment of silence for for the audience, but you can take a listen here. By the tragic laws of Alex Prady that occurred yesterday in Minneapolis, we extend our love, support and heartfelt sympathies to Alex's family, friends in our community during this difficult time. Please join us in honoring the life and memory of Alex Pretty with a moment of silence.
Starting point is 00:41:19 Like if we're on the air here and I literally have my contract here and I'm looking at, you know, as soon as I sign this, I'm going to get a seven-figure check. I've told them I won't be working here in two weeks. From the underground clubs that shaped global music to the pastors and creators who built the cultural empire. The Atlanta Ears podcast uncovers the stories behind one of the most influential cities in the world. The thing I love about Atlanta is that it's a city of hustlers, man. Each episode explores a different chapter of Atlanta's rise, featuring conversations with ludicrous, Will Packer, Pastor Jamal Bryant, DJ Drama, and more.
Starting point is 00:41:53 The full series is available to listen to now. I really just had never experienced anything like what was going on in the city as far as like, you know, seeing so many young, black, affluent, creatives in all walks of life. The church had dwindled almost to nothing. And God said, this is your assignment. And that's like how you know, like, okay, oh, you're from Atlanta for real. I ain't got to say too much.
Starting point is 00:42:14 I'm a Grady, baby. Shut up. Listen to where Atlanta is on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Ryder Strong, and I have a new podcast called The Red Weather. It was many and many a year ago in a kingdom by the sea. In 1995, my neighbor and a trainer disappeared from a commune. It was hard to wrap your head around. It was nature and trees and praying and drugs.
Starting point is 00:42:40 So no, I am not your guru. And back then, I lied to my parents. I lied to police. I lied to everybody. There were years right where I could not say your name. I've decided to go back to my hometown in Northern California, interview my friends, family, talk to police, journalists, whomever I can, to try to find out what actually happened.
Starting point is 00:43:00 Isn't it a little bit weird that they obsess over hippies in the woods and not the obvious boyfriend? They have had this case for 30 years. I'll teach you sons of a bitch to come around here in my wife. Boom, boom. This is The Red Weather. Listen to the Red Weather on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The moments that shape us often begin with a simple question. What do I want my life to look like now?
Starting point is 00:43:28 I'm Dr. Joy Harden Bradford. And on therapy for black girls, we create space for honest conversations about identity, relationships, mental health, and the choices that help us grow. As cybersecurity expert, Camille Stewart Gloucester reminds us, We are in a divisive time where our comments are weaponized against us. And so what we find is a lot of black women are standing up and speaking out because they feel the brunt of the pain. Each week we explore the tools and insights that help you move with purpose.
Starting point is 00:44:03 Whether you're navigating something new or returning to yourself. If you're ready for thoughtful guidance and grounded support, this is the place for you. Listen to Therapy for Black Girls on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. You know Roaldahl, the writer who thought up Willie Wonka, Matilda, and the BFG. But did you know he was also a spy? Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been. Our new podcast series, The Secret World of Roll Doll,
Starting point is 00:44:31 is a wild journey through the hidden chapters of his extraordinary, controversial life. His job was literally to seduce the wives of powerful Americans. And he was really good at it. You probably won't believe it either. Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you, the guy was a spy.
Starting point is 00:44:47 Did you know Dahl got cozy with the Roosevelt's? Played poker with Harry Truman and had a long affair with a congresswoman. And then he took his talents to Hollywood, where he worked alongside Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchman. before writing a hit James Bond film. How did this secret agent wind up as the most successful children's author ever? And what darkness from his covert past seeped into the stories we read as kids. The true story is stranger than anything he ever wrote.
Starting point is 00:45:12 Listen to the secret world of Roll Dahl on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, we are back. After the shooting on Saturday, Chuck Schumer said that Senate Democrats would not be advancing. a House-approved appropriations bill with the currently included DHS funding. Right now, the Senate is considering a six-bill spending package that was narrowly approved by the House thanks to seven Democrats. And now Senate Dems are seeking to separate out the DHS bill and advance the five others. These six annual spending bills are set to expire on January 31st.
Starting point is 00:45:56 If at least some Democrats don't sign on to the bills by Friday, there will be a partial government shutdown. On Wednesday, Schumer reiterated, quote, until ICE is properly reined in and overhauled legislatively, the DHS funding bill doesn't have the votes to pass the Senate, unquote. Possible enforcement concessions that Democrats are pushing for include, but are not limited to, independent investigations into the recent shootings, mandating judicial warrants for immigration arrests, mandating body cams, requiring agent identification, no masks, no arrest, quotas, no roving patrols, and restricting border patrol agents to the U.S. border. Yeah, so I want to address, I've actually addressed the roving patrols before and the
Starting point is 00:46:42 evidence standards for the stops on those patrols, so I'm not going to do that, but I do want to address this last one, right, with the quote-unquote U.S. border. Oh, God. So in the statute, Border Patrol is supposed to operate within a reasonable distance of the United States border, which they interpret to be a 100-mile distance. Now, when you are thinking of border, you might be thinking of land borders, but remember, this also includes ocean borders. They interpret the Great Lakes to be international waterways, and thus it begins 100 miles from the shore of the Great Lakes. For context, that still doesn't get you into
Starting point is 00:47:18 Minneapolis, right? You're looking at a bit further, 250 miles, was the shortest line I could draw on a map. people seem to be operating under a misapprehension that this includes airports and it does not. And I keep seeing this repeated online and then people keep telling me. The statute is actually very clear on what does and does not constitute a border. And it talks about external borders and airports are not included in this. Border Patrol does not operate within a hundred mile radius of every international airport in the United States. Really unclear if Democrats will be able to get some of these things. Obviously, pushing for more training has its limits.
Starting point is 00:47:57 The people involved in the shooting had years and years of training. And gave the training in some cases. They were doing what they were trained to do. But there's other stuff in here, like mandating body cams, which though Border Patrol currently has body cams, like ICE and Border Patrol, they have body cams. They're not required to always have them on. This would be seeking to change that. Other things like requiring the identification of agents deployed, not wearing masks, not having a rest quote. those, these would significantly change the way that ICE operates on the ground.
Starting point is 00:48:29 Possibly the most important thing that they are seeking here is the emphasis on judicial warrants as opposed to this administrative warrant that ICE has been using as its primary justification the past few months. I think we should refer to those. I've been called the administrative warrants. I think a better, I guess, down to use is the form 215, because that's what it is. It's a form that they filled out, right? Like, it is not a warrant in any meaningful sense of the word.
Starting point is 00:48:56 Yeah. But yeah, I'm just noting that because that's a change. I'm going to be trying to implement in my work going forward. The last Minneapolis-related story for this episode, which is mostly Minneapolis episode, I guess. Yeah. It's based on a CNN report that has claimed that federal agents encountered Alex Preddy a week prior to killing him. Preddy is said to have been driving and stopped his car when he witnessed ICE agents chasing a family on foot. Pretty began shouting and blowing a whistle before agents tackled Preddy and broke one of his ribs.
Starting point is 00:49:27 Prattie was later released on the scene. DHS has told CNN that they have no record of this incident, though an anonymous source told CNN that Prattie was a known and identified protester to federal officials on the ground. Quoting CNN, quote, earlier this month, a DHS official in Minneapolis sent a memo to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations officers assigned to the state on a temporary duty asking them to use a form to input information on protesters and agitators.
Starting point is 00:49:57 It is unclear whether the new intake form was used to share Prattie's information. It's also not clear whether federal agents who encountered Prattie on Saturday recognized him before they confronted him, unquote. Yeah, it's definitely HSI that has been doing the federal stuff that involves citizens, I guess, right? Like when they are investigating detaining people, I know Pam Bondi is there. today. Again, and has posted pictures of people who are detained with HSI officers, which is not a usual thing to do. But yeah, HSI, for whatever reason, they're kind of using as their
Starting point is 00:50:34 like surrogate FBI in these instances. James, then you can also speak on the sort of like surveillance of protesters, quote-unquote agitators that feds have been doing on the ground based on what you saw in Minneapolis. Yeah, that's, thank you, yeah. So like, I was at the Whipple Building, right? The Whipple Building being the Federal Building in Minneapolis, where they are taking people who are being detained and where ICE and CBP are deploying out of every day, right? I was there because there was a protest on Friday as part of a general strike.
Starting point is 00:51:03 And I noticed they looked like CBP or ICE, right? They had like what I would describe with tactical helmets and gear on, but using DSLR cameras to take pictures of people protesting. They were in vehicles and they were shooting. I can't remember if they had a door or the window to allow them to, take photographs, but I noticed that is an effort at surveillance, right? It is not unreasonable. I know Garrison, you also have this video, which happened in Maine, right, of an agent, more or less saying this, but it's not unreasonable to think that there is surveillance of people who are
Starting point is 00:51:36 engaging in First Amendment protected activities. Yes, and there has been some desire among ICE officials, including Tom Homan, who went on Fox News earlier this month, to say that he's pushing for a database, quote, were those people that are arrested for interference, impeding an assault, we're going to make them famous, unquote. So this news that Alex Freddie had been previously identified in some way by federal law enforcement follows an incident last Friday, where a federal agent in Maine photographed illegal observer's car and said, quote, we have a nice little database and you're now considered a domestic terrorist. I'll play this clip here. It's not illegal to record.
Starting point is 00:52:16 Exactly. Yeah. That's what we're doing. Yeah, why are you taking my information down? Because we have a nice little database. Oh, good. And now you're considered domestic terrorists. We're videotaping you? Are you crazy? George McLaughlin has told CNN that there is, quote, no database of quote-unquote domestic terrorists run by the Department of Homeland Security, unquote.
Starting point is 00:52:42 I want to say something about this main video, which is that I've been seeing a lot of people circulating this as, oh, there's new repression tactics happening here. They're going to show up people's houses. This has been happening. I mean, I know it was happening in Chicago. It probably was happening in L.A. I just don't remember off top of my head.
Starting point is 00:52:59 But the stuff that's happening here where these people take pictures of your face is not new at all. It's not some kind of new innovation in these repression tactics. Like, obviously be careful. But this is not a reason that everyone suddenly needs to be afraid that there's like a giant crackdown coming. They've been doing this the whole time. And so far it really hasn't. Like, it sucks, but it hasn't stopped Minneapolis. It hasn't stopped Chicago. No, they're trying to intimidate you to stop doing this. Like, that is the point of this agent
Starting point is 00:53:27 walking by and joking about how you're now a domestic terrorist. Yeah. Because that's not actually real. That is a way to scare you into not showing up based on the, based on the idea that if you do, they'll take a picture of you and now you get added to this domestic terrorist database. Yeah. Is it possible that they're making like some kind of catalog of, of pictures of protesters that they can maybe use for reference in the future to build a case against someone or if they arrest someone they can look to see if they've been at previous protests. No, that's not impossible. That is something that they've been doing for quite a while.
Starting point is 00:54:01 It's something that anti-fascists do against like proud boys back in the day where you just document a lot of people at a protest and then maybe eventually the information will become useful. Right. That is not like surprising, but like I've seen some pretty outrageous claims going viral that like after Pruddy had this encounter with law enforcement previously where they broke his rib, that Pruddy was then specifically targeted in the following weeks. Like, there is no information for that. Yeah, we have no evidence to prove that.
Starting point is 00:54:27 There's no information that this database led to him being intentionally targeted by federal agents on the ground. That is just speculation at this point. Yeah, there's no evidence of that and there's no evidence that this is like a new kind of campaigned repression. And I want to be very clear about this. if you are spreading this as a you need to be afraid now because there's a new thing that's happening, you are doing their job. You are spreading the fear that this is an intimidation that this is designed to do. So please stop doing this.
Starting point is 00:54:55 Yeah, I think like I understand that for a lot of people, any form of activism is very new and everything seems scary. But this is this is one of those times when like you need to check what you're doing because as Mia said, right, this has, the legal term is a chilling effect, right? Like the government generally courts have found the government should not do things that have a chilling effect on First Amendment protected speech. That's absolutely what the government is trying to do. You don't have to help them. Or not the government, but that particular agent, I should say, acting at work saying he's building a database, right?
Starting point is 00:55:30 That is what that is trying to do is, is to have a chilling effect. Well, I mean, I would argue the government's also doing this, you know, calling every legal observer a domestic terrorist, right? Yeah, I guess, yeah, fair enough. So we should mention this just so we don't leave it out, although we don't have a ton to say at the moment about this. But like the day before we recorded this on the 27th of January, I believe, Elon Omar was doing a town hall in Minneapolis where she is a representative and was assaulted by a man named Anthony James Kazmurzak,
Starting point is 00:56:04 who was a 55-year-old he was carrying, what looked like a syringe, but without a new. needle, just like a large syringe, like the kind you'd used to, like, give medicine to an animal or something. Yeah, like an irrigation syringe. Right. And it was filled with some kind of off-brownish yellow liquid. I don't think we know what it was.
Starting point is 00:56:23 It apparently was foul smelling, obviously. And he ran up screaming, you must resign and sprayed some of it at her. I don't know how much got on her. He was tackled very quickly by a security guard. Omar seemed to be squaring up and ready to fight him, which was, you know, and, expected given like the kind of shit she's had to deal with, right? She's had to be a very tough person. She doesn't seem to be injured.
Starting point is 00:56:46 I don't think there's any evidence that the liquid or whatever was something that caused or is likely to cause health issues, which, I mean, doesn't make it not assault. It just, I don't think she's currently in any danger, thankfully. Yeah. There's been a chorus of denunciations about the attack on her from a bunch of other elected leaders. I know people have said that, like, it's been ignored, but it's, At least it hasn't been from other people in the house, right? There's a lot of folks, including some Republicans who have made comments on it, just because none of them like the thought of having shit sprayed on them, I think.
Starting point is 00:57:18 Yeah. Anyway, we don't know a ton about this guy and why he did otherwise, other than that, he presumably hated Illinois, right? And that he wanted to get her to quit her job or otherwise harm her in some way. We don't really know much about this guy. There's some people talking about the fact that his kids seem to be. on the left, well, he's clearly not as if that's weird. It's not.
Starting point is 00:57:43 If your dad is the kind of crazy asshole who will spray poison on Ilan Omar at a town hall, I can see how maybe you become the opposite of him. But yeah, that's about all we know at the moment. I do want to mention Trump's comment on it, where ABC News asked Trump if he'd seen the video, and Trump said, quote, no, I don't think about her. I think she's a fraud. I really don't think about that. She probably had sprayed herself knowing her.
Starting point is 00:58:09 Yeah, you said that like a guy who thinks about her constantly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Really hideous stuff. Yeah. Producer Sophia here with a quick pickup, as we did not have this information at the time of recording. This is as of January 20th, 2026, per AP News, quote,
Starting point is 00:58:30 The Justice Department has charged a man who squirted apple cider vinegar on Democratic representative Omar at an event in Minneapolis, according to court papers made public Thursday. The man arrested for Tuesday's attack, Anthony Kazmersak, faces a charge of forcibly assaulting, opposing, impeding, and intimidating Omar, according to a complaint filed in federal court. Authorities determined that the substance was water and apple cider vinegar, according to an affidavit. After Kazmurzak sprayed Omar with the liquid, he appeared to say,
Starting point is 00:59:00 quote, she's not resigning, you're splitting Minnesotans apart, end quote, the affidavit says. Authorities also say that Casmerzac told a close associate several years ago that, quote, somebody should kill, end quote, Omar, court documents say. Casmerzac appeared briefly in federal court Thursday afternoon. His attorney told the judge, her client was unmedicated at the time of the incident and has not had access to medications he needs to treat Parkinson's disease in other serious conditions he suffers from. U.S. magistrate judge, Dulcey Foster, ordered that Kazerzak remained in custody,
Starting point is 00:59:36 and told officials he needs to see a nurse when he is transferred to the Sherburn County Jail, end quote. Again, that is via AP News. So I want to very briefly update people on Rajava. People keep asking for a whole episode. We will do one, I've been in Minneapolis. It's kind of a lot going on right now. Yeah, and you may have noticed, but this is still very important, right? Like, horrible things are happening.
Starting point is 00:59:59 So the STG, that's a Syrian transitional government, Ahmed al-Shara, Julani's government, right? And the SDF, Syrian Democratic forces, which includes YPG and YPGA, the armed forces that defend Roshava, have signed a 15-day extension to their ceasefire. Both sides are accusing the other of widespread violations of the ceasefire. Both of them are right. I've seen a lot of videos of ceasefire violations. The ceasefire was internationally mediated, likely by the US, and likely because of huge concerns around the escape of Islamic State prisoners.
Starting point is 01:00:35 there was an attempted IS suicide bombing in Iraq yesterday as we record this. That's the first time I can remember one of those happening in a while. The person was apprehended. But the U.S., I know, has been transferring detainees from a prisoner Hesaka. They're transferring them to U.S. facilities in Iraq. The presence of the detainees is not the thing that is going to make the U.S. support their allies in Rochava or their former allies in their SDF. I guess I should say now, the U.S., once again, it's not going to be a good friend to the Kurdish people.
Starting point is 01:01:11 Trump has also truth that Iraq should not appoint Nuri al-Maliki as his next prime minister. In his truth, he said, quote, I am hearing that the great country of Iraq might make a very bad choice by reinstalling Noreal-Maliki as prime minister. Last time Maliki was in power, the country descended into poverty and total chaos. That should not be allowed to happen again because of his insane policies and ideology. if elected, the United States of America will no longer help Iraq. And if we are not there to help, Iraq had zero chance of success, prosperity, or freedom, make Iraq great again.
Starting point is 01:01:46 Jesus Christ. First off, I mean, Maliki does suck. He's a really bad guy. Yeah, this is not a like yay Maliki post, but this ain't the way to go about doing that. No, I mean, just the whole, we will cut all ties and support to Iraq thing when everything happening there is still downstream of us fucking with them. Yeah. We did this. We spent
Starting point is 01:02:11 20 fucking years killing people in Iraq. Like, you don't just get to be like, oh yeah. And like the idea that we were doing regime change, but when the regime isn't the one that we like, that people elect, and I was like, we're doing regime change again. Like, obviously the whole thing was a fraud and a lie. Yes. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:02:27 Uh-huh. Still is. Yeah, very concerned for my friends. All the parts of Kurdistan, The peace process between the PKK and Turkey is falling apart. And state violence in Iran is still absolutely repugnant scale, right? Yeah. Yeah, pretty tough time in that part of the world. I'm thinking of them.
Starting point is 01:02:47 So finally, I want to give a brief update on my story from last week about this attempt to end Fed independence and this attempt to sort of do an investigation into the chairman of the Federal Reserve. So earlier today, as we were recording this, we got the result of the Fed's vote about what they were going to do with interest rates. There's a whole episode about that. Go listen to that if you want to understand what this is. But the Fed, instead of cutting rates as the administration has wanted, has decided to hold interest rates at the same level, which was what was expected out of the Federal Reserve before Trump started putting even more pressure on them. However, we did not get any updates from anyone at the Federal Reserve about this Department of Justice investigation
Starting point is 01:03:35 or any of the Trump pressure that's been being put on the Federal Reserve. So we'll keep you updated as the situation evolves, but all we got was a very normal interest rates are being held at the same level. We will include our list of mutual aid fundraisers for Minneapolis again in the show notes for this episode. Should you like to donate? put a transfer on your couch. Yep.
Starting point is 01:03:57 And if you want to email us, cool zone tips at proton. Dot me, use a proton mail address to send it. We reported the news. We reported the news. It Could Happen here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media,
Starting point is 01:04:21 visit our website, Coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources where it could happen here listed directly in episode descriptions. May 2nd, country's biggest stars will be in Austin, Texas at our 2026 I-Hard Country Festival presented by Capital One.
Starting point is 01:04:50 Tickets are on sale now. Get yours before they sell out at Ticketmaster.com. That's Ticketmaster.com. This is Ryder Strong, and I have a new podcast called The Red Weather. In 1995, my neighbor and a trainer disappeared from a commune. Those nature and trees and praying and drugs. So no, I am not your guru. And back then, I lied to everybody.
Starting point is 01:05:14 They have had this case for 30 years. I'm going back to my hometown to uncover the truth. Listen to the red weather on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Whether it is getting swatted or just hateful messages online, there is a lot of harm and even just reading the comments. That's cybersecurity expert Camille Stewart Gloucester on the Therapy for Black Girls podcast. Every season is a chance to grow. And the Therapy for Black Girls podcast is here to walk with you. I'm Dr. Joy Harden-Brandford, and each week we dive into real conversations
Starting point is 01:05:49 that help you move with more clarity and confidence. This episode, we're breaking down what really happens to your information online and how to protect yourself with intention. Listen to Therapy for Black Girls on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. You know, Roald Dahl. He thought up Willie Wonka and the BFG. But did you know he was a specific?
Starting point is 01:06:11 In the new podcast, The Secret World of Rolled Doll, I'll tell you that story, and much, much more. What? You probably won't believe it either. Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been. Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you, the guy was a spy. Listen to The Secret World of Roll Doll on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 01:06:36 This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.

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