The Chris Cuomo Project - Minnesota Is the Warning Sign for What Comes Next

Episode Date: January 27, 2026

Chris Cuomo responds to the killing of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen and intensive care nurse with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs who was shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis during protests over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Cuomo walks through what we actually know, why local leaders are pushing back hard against federal enforcement tactics, and how this moment fits into a familiar pattern of escalation — one where the outcome wasn’t unpredictable.Cuomo makes a clear distinction between supporting law enforcement and accepting strategies that make violence more likely. He explains why flooding heavily armed federal agents into already tense protest zones doesn’t calm situations down, and why pretending these outcomes are “shocking” after the fact avoids the harder question: what kind of country are we becoming if this keeps happening? Join The Chris Cuomo Project on YouTube for ad-free episodes, early releases, exclusive access to Chris, and more: https://www.youtube.com/@chriscuomo/join Follow and subscribe to The Chris Cuomo Project on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday: https://linktr.ee/cuomoproject Support our sponsors: Get 20% off your first order of Lucy nicotine pouches at lucy.co with code CUOMO, or find a store near you at https://lucy.co/stores Grab 30% OFF the Maximum Male System by Juvenon here: https://bloodflow7.com/CUOMO Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As Minnesota goes, so goes America. So what are you going to do about it? Because we have reached an inflection point. We know it can't be right left anymore. We know that that got us here. It's got to be about right and wrong. And what we saw there, not what you heard, not what you think, not what you feel, what you saw was wrong.

And you know it was wrong. And it has to start there. Because we have to get back to right and wrong. and away from right and left. This is unsustainable. This only gets worse. There will be more of this. This is a metaphor.

And if you jump to, yeah, but them and them and they should have. And that's not where you start. You start with, well, this was wrong. And don't pretend it wasn't. And don't say domestic terrorism. And don't say he shouldn't have a gun. Don't say any of these absurd, hypocritical, ridiculous things just to defend aside.

When the only side that matters is right and wrong, and we all know what it is. I'm Chris Cuomo. Welcome to the Chris Cuomo Project. That's where we are. And I don't want this to be dire, but I am doing a special edition of the podcast because I want to be on record. This is the time that everybody needs to pause and stand and state who they are. and what they're about. This is a big moment we are living.

Why? Alex Preti should not have been killed by federal agents. Alex Prettie was an unjustified killing. Okay? There is no but. And you see that in the nature of the pushback, but you can't stop there. I'll tell you why Alex Pretti isn't even Renee good, which I believe should be investigated and would reasonably be found to be an unjustified shooting.

But whether I'm wrong or not about that is irrelevant to giving it due process, giving it an investigation, which they're not doing right now, weaponizing information early on, putting out horrible, ugly language that accelerated. that escalated and helped a tribute to where we are now. Alex Preti is too much. And no, I'm not going to say we're all Alex Prattie because we're not. I'm not Alex Prattie and not just because I'm alive. Alex Prattie was a better American than I am. Alex Prattie was a better American than most of us. How can I say that?

We know about his life. Forget about just him deciding to be a nerd. Forget about him deciding to be an ICU nurse. What did he do with his time? Have you seen the videos of how the guy went out of his way to give respect to veterans because of what they meant to this country? Alex Prattie was a good person. Alex Prattie went to that protest because he believed in redress of the government

when you thought what was happening was wrong or unjust. you see how absurd Minnesota is as a metaphor for our country when the government came out right away and said he's a domestic terrorist. Christy gnome, shame on you. Shame on you. Who knew that killing your dog would be the least bothersome and obnoxious thing about you? I mean, you lost me at shoot the dog, but now that looks reasonable compared to what you've done since.

I mean, this is a great example of what happens when you just decide to be a parrot and not a critical thinker. One of ours, all of yours. One of ours, all of yours. You now know that this administration does not see Americans all the same way. And the only way that you are explaining anything about Alex Pretti is because you don't like what he represents. And you see how absurd, how tortured this is in the response to Pretti. He shouldn't have had a weapon. Really, Kyle Rittenhouse?

Really? He shouldn't have had the weapon? The weapon he legally obtained and trained to have and carried. carried his certification and permit for, that's what the right is going to say. Why do he have the weapon? That's what Cash Patel is going to say. That's what Christy Noem is going to say. Forget about the fact that seeing the video removes all doubt that this was at best

a wrong, a wrong, and an understandable negligent homicide. How so? Why did you treat that female protest? or like that in the first place. Where does this animosity towards Americans come from? We're not used to seeing the United States government treat protesting Americans like this. Are we back on the Pettus Bridge?

Is that where we are? Are we going to see fire hoses turned on Americans because we don't like that they're fighting for justice? Is that what we're going to do? Is that who we are now? Is that us again? Are we not learning from history? Alex Preddy's the problem.

Alex Preddy's a domestic terrorist. Are you fucking kidding me? But the outrage is easy. He shouldn't have had his weapon. Game over. Game over. Alex Pretty shouldn't have had the weapon. Game over.

Why? Because you're playing a game of Yab Bud, a false equivalency, of demonizing anyone who opposes you, and you just lost the game. because the right is arguing that someone shouldn't be able to exercise their Second Amendment right by carrying. He didn't have the gun out. He had a cell phone out. He went to help a woman that you should not have treated that way. Alex Prady did the right thing. You had done the wrong thing. And then you killed him and tried to hide it. And then the video came out and you tried to deny it. And now you want to investigate it and silence it.

No. No. Alex Pready is not all of us. Alex Pready is the best of us. That's who Alex Pretty is. That's what he represents. And no, I'm not heroizing him because of how he died. I am distinguishing him because of how he lived. The legal analysis is simple.

I thought Renee Good was simple. This is absurdly simple. Yeah, but the local officials, you want it? You got it. Sanctuary City's good, bad. That's a political question. No, no, no, they're illegal. That's a legal question.

The Supreme Court has ruled again and again. They are constitutional. If you don't like it, you don't have to like it. But look at the cases. Should local law enforcement allow ICE agents into jails and prisons to collect people who are not here legally who are violent felons? Yes. But Walls and Fry haven't done that.

Then that's wrong. But you can't limit it that way in the analysis. because you can't expect them to work with you when everything you're doing on the streets is wrong. Yeah, but the reason that we're doing it on the streets this way is because they didn't work with us. Ah, there is a little bit of a chicken and egg here, sure. And maybe Tom Holman will be able to negotiate a different situation.

I don't know. I haven't seen him do that in the past. I think the president should be doing this. I think how they sent the VP, I have said, was wrong. He should have met with the local leaders. This has to stop. this has to stop it's going to get worse and no not because i predicted i don't give a shit about my predictions of being right i don't want this right now i am afraid of this and i am suspicious

of all the different players about who really wants more of this and who doesn't i'm not so sure that everybody wants this to stop i'm not so sure i'm not and i'll tell you what the remedy is Now, look, the easy, the lay up here, and I know you guys are going to see it as a give, and I don't care. State enforcement, state authorities should allow access to federal agents into the jails and the prisons. I know why you stop giving it. I remember the inception of sanctuary cities. That's not the situation anymore. The situation used to be ICE didn't have the resources.

They didn't have the leadership. they didn't have the manpower, and localities would be stuck holding people beyond constitutionally warranted or justifiable duration and get sued and lose. And the feds were basically asking local resources to do their job and overtaxing them.

That's where this came from. It didn't come from, we want as many illegals as we can get so we have more voters. That's a bullshit boogeyman theory. And shame on the left for allowing it to get the roots that it's gotten. That's their job to fight back against that. I can tell you it's not true, but I'm not here to advocate for a particular position.

But the great replacement theory has never made any sense. So, yes, state, local governments, you should be working with ICE, of course, but not to enable them killing Alex Pretti. And Alex Pretti should open everybody's eyes to what's wrong. Support comes from Lucy. Now, every adult needs to make their own choice about what substances work for them. Okay? If nicotine works for you, you got to find a way to get that drug in a pure offering that comes

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Do you know what cognitive dissonance is? I've done a lot of homework. Why? I was using it wrong. And it is common usage. You know, sometimes we get things wrong so consistently, so constantly. that it changes their meaning. But we use cognitive dissonance to mean what?

You know this is wrong and you're doing it anyway. That's how we use cognitive dissonance, right? That these people are just choosing to believe something that they know is wrong. That's not cognitive dissonance. And this isn't a big brain in the weeds. So what, you know, Pennywise, pound foolish. No, it matters. Because we actually need a lot more cognitive dissonance.

we need more and i'm not saying we all need to take drugs and alter our realities so that we don't have to deal with it no i'm saying the opposite we got to lean in to what we know to be real and to be true need two things one fuck right and left focus on right and wrong you and i are the same we are both American citizens. Okay? That's what we are. Critical thinkers, citizens. We care about the country, probably have a bunch of shared concerns and values. That's the truth. Every time we measure it, most of us care about the same things, believe in the same things. So we need to get rid of right and left and get back to reasonable. We are Americans. That is all. George Washington was right. The parties have killed us. They should be removed and turned into just packs.

and no longer have any control over our process. I believe in all that. But let's deal with right now. We need cognitive dissonance. Why do we need more delusion? Because that's not what it is. We're using it wrong. I think in part in using it wrong,

we have ignored, masked a really, really powerful insight. Cognitive dissonance is the resulting feeling from the awareness that you are behaving in a way that is inconsistent with what you believe to be true. It is the result of doing that. The upset that you feel naturally when you know you are not acting in a way that is consonant, consistent with what you're believe and then you feel a certain way about it. That's the dissonance. The dissonance is the upset at knowing I'm about justice. I'm about the Constitution. And now you're saying this guy shouldn't have had a weapon? And now you're saying that the protest is the problem. And now you're

saying that us chasing after citizens and people who may be or misdemeanor or they're that's raids all over and violence. That's what I voted for. No, no, no, I didn't. I didn't vote for that. I wanted you to enforce the law. I wanted the bad hombres gone. And if other people who are here illegally, man, if we don't come up with some alternative, then they got to go too. But you didn't sign up for rounding them up like rats and dead Americans. You didn't sign up for that. And that should make you upset. That what I wanted is not what I'm now forced to support. And in that feeling, that cognitive dissonance, there is a chance for change. You see what I'm saying?

Similarly, I didn't. Hold on. I'm against what Trump's about. I'm against these reductive policies. I don't want to abolish ICE. I'm not going to be quiet during that. I'm not going to support that. That we have no law enforcement mechanism. How they do it, the amount of resources they have, what the purview of their responsibilities are. Yeah, yeah, let's do. debate that, man. It's gotten way too big. It's gotten too intense. But I'm not owning this defund abolish shit. I'm not going 100 degrees, 100 miles an hour in the opposite direction. That doesn't feel right. That's really powerful, man. You need that. My father called it your gut. You gut. What is it telling you in your gut? What's right? What's the right thing to do?

Are you doing the right thing? Is it the right thing to do? My father used to say it all the time. Is it doing the right thing? You know the right thing. You know when it's not right. That's cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance isn't the problem. Cognitive dissonance is the fuel for the solution. You know that what you see in Minnesota is wrong.

You know killing Alex Pretti and calling it anything, but that was wrong. You know that. You know one of ours, all of yours, is wrong. We are not at war with a foreign power. We are at war increasingly with ourselves, and it has to stop Minneapolis. What happens if they do it in Los Angeles? I mean, are you serious?

What happens if they try it in Washington, D.C.? What happens if they try it in New York City? In Boston, in Dallas, the scale. The explosiveness, the violence, the bloodshed. Hell yeah, I'm afraid. I'm not hype in this. I'm scared. Why do you think I said that to Scott Jennings?

I didn't threaten him. I don't want to hurt Scott. I don't want to hurt anybody. I don't like bullies. I was bullied as a kid. I believe that I have been built and by personal design to fight bullies. My concern was realized.

days after, just days after I said it. If you keep up with the, yeah, I'm calling them illegals. Yeah, I'm saying that. Yeah, I want to marginalize them. I want to treat them like less than. I want this fight. I'm saying, and what are you going to do about it? What are you going to do?

How are you going to stop me, punk, your little punk kid? How are you going to stop me? I want to know how you're going to enforce that. Hold on. I don't want to move on in the conversation. How are you going to enforce that? How are you going to make me stop saying it? He was taunting.

He was being obnoxious. He was being a bully. And what he was saying is, yeah, I'm going to say it. You can't stop me. It wasn't a censorship point. Having the right to say something doesn't make what you're saying right. And let me tell you, if the irony is lost on your stupid ass that your resistance to me telling you that saying something like illegal is rude and reductive and helps escalate tension, if your response to fighting against that, of countering that is, fuck you, Fredo. If that's your response, you're making my point.

If your response to me saying, you know, using an ugly term for people who aren't legally in the country only escalates the tension, is to escalate the tension in a way that you think is the equivalent of calling them an illegal is the equivalent of calling me as an Italian American? Fredo, by the way, you want to hear something crazy? I don't even believe in Italian American. Like, what the fuck? What does that even mean? You see what I'm saying?

I am an American and my ancestry is Italian. And I'm a simple one, okay? Like literally both sides of my family, my mother and my father and their parents and their parents and their parents were all from the same two towns in Italy. So I'm a very simple analysis. I'm not even your typical American that is more a function of the melting pot. But Italian American, what is that? I'm American. My ethnicity, yeah, I have Italian blood, but I'm American.

My Italian is medza-medza. So, so. I care about my culture. I care about my roots. I care about the rituals. I care about the traditions. They matter to me. The identity matters to me.

It matters to me that I am Italian, but it's nothing compared to me being an American. It's nothing. It's a feature. It's not my soul. It's not my identity. I'm an American. I don't even get the Irish American. We're Americans.

We're Americans. That's all we are. I'm a black American. I'm a white American. No, no, you're an American. And see, and once you focus on that, this other shit becomes so obvious and so offensive. We need more cognitive dissonance.

That's what we need. We need more people to know just what's right and what's wrong. killing Alex Pretty was wrong, comma, but. Fuck that. No but. No but. No but. No but.

That's how you get into this Kyle Rittenhouse bullshit. It was okay for that young, dumb, misguided kid to show up with a weapon of death, which is what the AR-15 is, it's not for hunting. It's not for target practice. It's not for ski. it's to kill people. That's what the thing's designed to do. Well, it's my right. Well, then keep that same fucking energy.

Then it was Preti's right also. And by the way, that is right. It was his right. I may argue with it, but it's his right. And for you to say that it's a problem now should expose how bullshit what you're defending is. And you should feel that. That's the cognitive dissonance.

And now don't make the mistakes that go along with justifying cognitive dissonance, that I'm upset. What should you do about it? Do something better. Do something to fix it. Do what's right. Instead of, yeah, but that's justification.

Instead of, yeah, but they're still worse. That's identification. That's you putting coping skills in to deal with your cognitive dissonance, your feeling of upset because you know you're bullshit. You know there's a hypocrisy here. And instead of dealing with it, you're dismissing it by using one of these other psychological devices. I can't believe I missed this for so long that I didn't hone in on it.

Just Google it. Just Google what is cognitive dissonance, okay? And how do people hide from cognitive dissonance? How do they cope with cognitive dissonance? And you'll see all these psychological terms come up that mirror our political tactics and tools. And social media just enables all of it in the worst way by being designed to amplify outrage and animus. And therefore, division. Alex Pretty was a bad shoot. Now, what do I think happened? I think what they did what the woman was wrong. I think him stepping up to help her was

right, but dangerous. Why did he carry his weapon? I don't know. It doesn't matter. Did he use his Did he brandish his weapon? Not that I see. And I see what they saw. So then what happened? Where's the negligence? Isn't this murder? I don't know that it's murder.

Why? Because when I see the agent who makes that first abrupt move to shoot, it looks like they're surprised. It looks like they're reacting to something. What could that have been? Well, on the video, you see the weapon being removed. So he wasn't brandishing the weapon. The weapon's being removed.

I didn't see him hold the weapon out of him. He had a phone in his hand. What could have happened? It's got to be investigated. Find the facts. Do what justice demands. But in that investigation, I think one of the factors will be what we've seen. Is there a chance that with those multiple officers that when they decided to make a move on this guy, which they should not have, in my opinion.

But when they made that decision, might one of them had said weapon when they were taken it off him? How do we know he didn't tell them he had a weapon? I don't know. That's part of the investigation. He didn't brand his shit. Did he tell him he had it? He may have. Oh, he was supposed to. If he didn't, then it's all on him. Bullshit. If he didn't announce to you that he has a weapon, then it's okay that you kill them. No, that's not how negligence works. It's not how the law works. Okay? Duty breach caused harm. Who had the duty? The cop. What was that duty? To be careful in the use of force to work reason. off what is known and what you've been trained to do. Did you breach it? Ah, that goes. Did he brandish the weapon? I don't see it. You don't see it either because it didn't happen. Did he announce that he had one? I don't know. That's part of the investigation. They definitely discovered that he had one and pretty quickly. Now, did the guy who discovered it tell the other officers, got the weapon, weapon secured, weapon secured? I don't hear it. Mighty have said, gun. Might that have been what startled

and surprised an officer to open fire. Do I think he's like, I'm going to kill this. No, I don't know that. I did see that at play with Renee Good. Absolutely, why? You say, you bitch, after you shoot her in the head? Doesn't sound like fear to me. It sounds like anger, right?

Like outrage, like animus. This is different from what I've heard so far. Could have been negligent. What I mean, so how is it negligent? You're saying it's not wrong? No, of course it's wrong. but it's like why it happened. It could have been that the guy thought he said gun, saw him moving, didn't understand,

not well trained, makes a bad choice, and fires, and then all the other ones fire. Why? Because that's what you do. When you're unseasoned especially. But seasoned officers do it sometimes also. Why? Because they make a bad choice or something that seems reasonable in the moment and later does not seem as reasonable. That very well could be the explanation of this.

But I'll tell you what, the guy's not a domestic tariff. terrorist. And I'll tell you what, being desperate to show that he is is the fucking problem. Where is the cognitive dissonance? Where is that tapping into your upset that you know that this is wrong and that you're quiet about it or you're distracting from it or you're trying to blame somewhere else for it instead of dealing with that conflict? Embrace it. Embrace it. The obstacle is the way. Ryan Holliday. Stoicism. Embrace it.

Man, this is not justice. Man, this is not law and order. Man, this is not what is warranted. This is not what I want to see. And that is enough. Yeah, but that's bad for Trump. It is not bad for Trump. It is not.

Fixing this is not bad for Trump. Well, but then that's going to be bad for the Democrats. I want to do what's good for the Democrats. And that's it. This is not good for the Democrats. Fixing this is good for the Democrats. Support comes from Juvenon Maximum Mail System. Listen, I'm leaning into it and I'm leveling up.

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Once again, that's www. bloodflow7.com forward slash quomo. You can thank me later. I want to read you something. Got to get back to first principles, man. We've been led so far afield. We're so fucked up. We're so twisted up.

And you want to say, oh, Como, it's you. You know what? Fine. It's me. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I wasn't more aggressive about who and what Trump is and is capable of when this first all started.

I'm sorry. Okay? I'm sorry that I didn't push back more during the impeachment when all the Russia and the dossier and everything was so flimsy and it was so obviously political. I'm sorry that I wasn't more muscular in testing that. I'm sorry. I should have been. I'm sorry that I didn't have a platform during the phase of the pandemic when we started to learn that a lot of our underlying assumptions were wrong and that the government had been wrong about things, whether it was the need for distancing, the need for anything, the need for vaccines, the money, any of it. I'm sorry.

I wish I could do it differently. I wish I had been more muscular with the brother and sister Democrats when they were thinking about riding the Biden train for a second term when such a big part of why he got a term was because it was only going to be one and everybody knew he was at the end of his powers. I should have been stronger about how they were fucking up this process

and getting themselves into a position where they seemed like, Trump was a less risky choice. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. If that's what you need to hear. The idea that I've been repeating the same mistake is bullshit. I try. I wish.

I wish I wish I had done things differently. I wish. I wish that I could go back and say, hey, you know what, you can't give them the benefit of the doubt about how they're going to enforce the law. Let's have the fight right now. Let's have him spell out. What do you mean?

How are you going to secure the border? Oh, okay, all right, that makes sense. And you want to do more of what? Oh, yeah, okay, all right, fine. And then, and what else are you going to do? You're going to get them all out of the country? 10, 15, 20, 25 million? I mean, doesn't that tell you right there

that they don't even know what the hell they're dealing with? Biden let in, you know, 10, 15, 20, 25 million. You're okay with a 250, 300 percent increase in a number within two seconds. They don't know. They just wanted to make it as big as possible. Why? So they could justify doing as much as possible. Yeah, but I'm good with this.

No, you're not. No, you're not. No American citizen is good with federal agents flooding cities, flooding municipalities, flooding your community, looking for people who may have committed a misdemeanor. People who are not here legally in the country is not why everything costs so much, okay? It's not why you don't have the job you want.

It's not why you don't get the pay you want. That's not why. Not but for. if every illegal entrant in America disappeared tonight. God willing, not dead, disappeared in some benevolent way. They were similarly situated in another country that's more accepting of them and life was better for them. Let's try to create some kind of positive, carmic energy. Do you think that all the prices go down?

You think you've got dollar gas? You think you're making 55 bucks an hour? instead of 25? You think that all your taxes go down? Because they're the ones destroying all the emergency rooms? You really think that's why the cost of health care is what it is?

That is all bullshit. It is an article of convenience to blame somebody to put less pressure on this administration to change what they said they would change. Nobody voted for what you see in Minneapolis. And the but-for is not the governor.

and not the mayor. They are not the but for in the analysis, but for the administration deciding that this fraud, alleged fraud in Minnesota, was a way to go after the Somalis and make them a metaphor for how bad immigrants

are ruining and responsible for our affordability crisis. That's what this is. Two things can be true. and you have people who aren't legally in the country all over the place, and we had an election where people said they wanted the law enforcement. That's true. Nobody said, I don't give a fuck how you enforce it.

Nobody. So, but for the administration doing this, the way they're doing it, we're not where we are. And I think the federal government needs to go first. Of course, they have to lead. Leaders lead. You are the supremacy clause. You are the supreme power.

You are the law of the land. Now, the state reserve rights, right? The 10th Amendment's a real thing, right? But the government has to go first. That's not weakness. That's strength. And they don't have to get the fuck out. They can just pull back, get them somewhere warm, put them somewhere, put them 100 different places.

No Third Amendment violations. You can't put them in people's homes. and meet with the local leaders and say, look, are you going to let us into the jails and the prisons so we can get the guys that you have? Are you going to let us do it that way? You got to say yes. Why? Why? How is it reasonable? Otherwise, I don't understand the arguments as to how that's not reasonable. Let me know. Maybe I'll change my position. Here's how we're going to do it. Here's how we're going after. This is what kind of operations we want to do. And then you pick where you want to be a part, where you don't want to be a part. But we got to be able to do better than

this. We've got to be able to do better than this. And I think the federal government has to go first. But on our level of critical thinkers, of citizens, man, you've got to, you got to destroy right and left. And I'll tell you why, you're being forced to own too much shit that you don't want to if you're on the right. And if you're on the left, you can oppose what's going on without being on some opposite team. you can oppose how this administration is using its power and its mandate as an American citizen. You don't have to be on the opposing team. Why? Because the opposing team may be better on some things than not others.

And why make the compromise? There is no reason to compromise. I'm against this as an American citizen. I will not vote for you if you are in favor of doing things this way. You don't have to be in this other. Why? Because you wind up getting into a battle of just which side is worse. This binary zero sum. You only win when they lose.

So there is no reason. There's no currency. There's no power in accommodation, in cooperation, in collaboration, in a negotiation. There's no upside to getting anything done. If all you have to do is have your side convinced that the other side is worse, that's what you'll do. And you'll do it because it's easier. and if you want power and you want to keep power,

that's easier for you than fixing anything. So you're playing into the problem. By picking a side, pick the American side. This is wrong. Alex Pretti was killed. It was wrong. No, don't say that because the president's in Europe. Fuck that. Oh, no, don't say that they should work with them

because then you're getting soft and then you're giving Trump a win. Fuck that. I want better. I want reasonable. Forget right and left. Let's get back to right and wrong. And we need more cognitive dissonance. Tap into that feeling in your gut.

Man, I'm sick of owning what Trump is doing. I'm sick of justifying it. I'm sick of twisting it and rationalizing it. I did not sign up for this. I do not want that. I own a small business. These tariffs are killing me. I'm not going to give him two years

when he said he could fix it in two weeks. I'm not going to own that shit. I'm against it. And it doesn't make me a Democrat. It doesn't make me a socialist. It doesn't make me in anything. And if I believe in enforcing immigration law, it doesn't make me a Nazi. But if you back people who do terrible things in that moment, then you're backing what is wrong.

Tap into that cognitive dissonance. And don't justify it be saying, but they're worse. But, you know, if you look at it, look at it this way, then it's okay. And if I choose to believe that Alex Pretti is the problem, then it's all right. But look at what you got to swallow. Man, Kristineau made it easy for you. One of ours, all of yours? Who's the yours? Who's the you? Think about it. What good answer is that? Oh, well, it's the illegals who are killed. Illegals? Illegals killed Brenne. Good. Oh, no, but they've killed other people. Really? They have. Okay.

And you think that the level of threat that illegal entrance posed to our safety are women and children warrants this kind of enforcement. Really? So if that's how we do, if that's how we do threat assessment, you're telling me we shouldn't be having raids on the fentanyl guys. Huh. You don't think that warrants it. as a threat to us as much as what illegal entrance are doing to us. Really? You think are a top threat that we should have the most federal agents with a budget

bigger than Israel's defense budget running around the country looking for these people because they warrant that level of data. That's bullshit. You know it's bullshit. And once you know it's bullshit, you know then why they're doing it. They're not doing it because they represent the threat that warrants them. then why are they doing it? And that's who the U is.

They're doing it to expose and put down their political opposition. And that's why, as goes Minnesota, so goes the country. I'm not calling for rebellion. Not at all. I'm calling for resilience and reasonableness. How they're doing this is wrong.

If you're not here illegally, of course law enforcement is an issue. Of course it has to be upheld. Of course, but how you do it matters. And yes, state and local should work with you when it comes to getting dangerous people who are a threat to us. We're sitting in the jails or the prisons.

Of course. That's not a slippery slope. You could do it. But we got to stop watching and we got to stop waiting and we've got to stop making accommodations because we got to fit it into two sides. Right and wrong is so much more expansive than right and left.

Meaning what? We know what's right and wrong. Right and left is debatable on so many fucking things. What tax? How much? Who? When? How often?

You can debate these things. You can debate these things. Killing that kid, Alex Pretty. That's not debatable. That was wrong, okay? And it's going to keep happening. So if you don't want it to happen, what do you want?

You want change. I want it to be right. How do you do it right? Not like this. I mean, come on. This is simple. This is not complicated. Is it hard?

Yeah. Yeah, it's hard. It's hard. Why? Because you got people to back off ambition to stop doing what's easier, to stop doing what's more convenient. That's why I'm asking you to stop playing into it. Stop playing into it.

You know, I think Scott Gailaway has like the best idea I've heard in a long time. You know what people should do? People who are sick of how things are going? Stop spending. Now, I'm not saying that in some bullshit austerity way that, you know, your financial issues are your fault. That's not what I'm saying. Of course, look, we all have blame in our own situations, of course. But look at what he says about a GDP strike, an economic strike.

You know, if a lot of us. decided, you know, we're not going to buy and use and do what we usually do to send a message. That if you did that for a month, go look up Scott Galloway and see his discursive on this, his explanation. It's really good. The damage that it would do to corporate America, you just take one month, don't buy that car. Don't buy those pants. Don't buy that anything. Go as long as you can without making any major purchases. And only buy the minimum. of what you do need. Eat up everything in the house. Do everything you can. In one month, the pressure on cash flows would get these people who are in charge of us, right?

Right? You know that, right? But it's not the deep state. It's not as simple as that. It's not the elites. It's not the triumvirate. It's not any of those things. It's who our society decides to pick us the winners, which happens to be the rich, especially the people. the corporate rich, they would be demanding change from the administration. Whoa, you see where our cash flows are at? Holy cow, you see what's happening with our stock prices? Holy shit. You got to stop this. Make this stop. Make this stop. That would be really powerful. Do I think it will happen? No. Why? We're in too much of a bad place of convenience right now where we only do the minimum and bitch about the maximum, and it's all been made so easy for us on social media,

such an illusion of agency. It's such an illusion of agency. But you can go on and comment and tell me that I'm Fredo or that I'm God's gift or whatever bullshit. It's all equally bullshit, right? I'm the worst. I'm the best. They're both bullshit. I'm closer to the worst than I am to the best.

But, you know, that's me. There are a lot of people who are a lot closer to the best than they are the worst. Like Alex Brady. The guy that all those cops shot again and again and again. The metaphor in that is, bad things, bad decisions get motivation. Bad things are contagious.

Bad decisions are contagious. And it could have been negligence. Didn't have to be murder. Didn't have to be intentional. Certainly wasn't premeditated. It doesn't have to be that they hated these people. Do I think that there is animus that's out of control? Oh yeah.

Oh, yeah. And no, I do not blame protesters for being. being the people making the mistakes. Why? Because they're not the ones that I give weapons and color of authority to with training that allows them to be better than what they confront. That's law enforcement. That's why they get the weapons. That's why they get the ability to use force in a way that you and I do not. Because I expect them to know how to use it and when to use it, but more importantly, how not to and when not to, to de-escalate. And these guys have become basically whatever they come up against.

You want it nice, it's nice. You want it's rough, it's rough. That's Putin. That's China. That's not us. Okay? Our whole virtue is not, you want to, you know, you want to go, let's go. That's UFC.

That's MMA. Okay, that's not law enforcement. Fuck around and find out is not the, are going to be on the side of a cop car. Okay? That is chaos. That is bullshit. That is being what you are supposed to oppose in a democracy.

The whole point is that we have a standard that's better than what violates that standard. It's not if you violate the standard we're going to do you the way you do us. Fuck around and find out gets you Alex Pretty. And I'm not blaming him. I'm blaming that mentality. One of ours, all of yours. You are yours.

It's all ours. Kyle Rittenhouse is Alex Pretty, meaning if one of them matters to you, both of you have to matter. Oh, both have to matter to you. No, no, I didn't like what happened with Kyle Rittenhouse. I do not think Alex Pretty is in any way an analog to him in terms of means, motives, or actions.

It's not even a close call. I'm saying if you defended that guy, you better defend this guy. If you defended Ashley Babbitt, which I believe is defending a bad thing. Defending Kyle Rittenhouse is defending a bad thing. You should not be taking weapons and going to a place where you don't live

to take on people who are protesting. No, I was there to protect the stores. The fuck out of here. You got cops for that. You got no business doing that. That's not what it was about. Oh, that's your opinion. Yeah, whatever.

I'm entitled to it for now. Alex Pready is not. I'm saying keep that same fucking energy. If it's okay to have a weapon because your Second Amendment right, would you believe like was one of Jesus' main priorities? Now you're going to say this guy shouldn't have brought a weapon? Come on.

And yes, I know they're going to spin some clever response to that. But it's all opportunism. It's all them just playing into the problem. It's all playing into the design of social. media and the algorithms and just amplifying the animus, amplifying a division for dollars, and it's going to get worse and worse. Lean into what you know is right and wrong. Be a nation, be a citizen, be a critical thinker.

That is all. That is all. You don't need to join a team to criticize your government, to support what happens. You don't have to swallow shit because you like tax cuts. You can like tax cuts, like less regulation, don't like transports and not have to support killing fellow citizens over bullshit. You don't have to eat everything on your plate, so to speak, okay? Be what we used to call a cafeteria Catholic.

You know what the problem with being a cafeteria Catholic? Catholic is, these are the parts that work, these are the parts that don't. You know what the answer to that always is? Orthodoxy. Extremism, no, you have to take all of it or you take none of it. If you don't do everything, then you do nothing. I don't like that in deontology or theology or religiosity. I don't like it as an idea. That's why I think that there are problems with religion, with structures of rules. Remember, religion is in faith. may require faith, but religion comes from the word religo, rules, right? Those are the rules. I don't like the rule that women and men aren't equal in the eyes of the Catholic Church.

It's a problem for me. I'm not going to accept that because I still want to be a Catholic. No, I'm not going to do that. That's my choice. But in my politics, I'm not going to own shit just because it's coming from my side. Well, yeah, okay. I mean, look, Abolish ICE is better than this. No, it isn't. No, it isn't. No, it isn't. you don't think they're going to just use some other agency. No, we've got to get the rules right of how you do it. That's being a critical thinker. I'm not about some fucking side. I'm about right and wrong, and those are not sides.

They are a case-by-case analysis of what are our principles and our priorities and our practices to keep it alliterative. Instead of pew, p, pew, pew, pew. Look, you know what's right. You know what's wrong. You just do. You will raise that way. You know the law. adult that way, you work that way, you friend that way, you partner that way, you parent that

way, you know what's right and wrong. And you know what that process is about. And that's all we need here. Running around the way they are in Minneapolis is not how you enforce the law. Oh, but they won't let them do the job. Well, then deal with that part. Don't do it worse. It's the same shit that got us into this social media problem. Well, the legacy media hasn't been what we wanted to be. And They can be slanted and they could not get it right and they can not correct themselves. Okay, so that's going to justify our decision to do it worse and have a bunch of influencers that you're calling independent journalists who have no resources, no reporting, no responsibility, no accountability.

And they just go from outrage to outrage. And you don't even see or seem to care that they just change every week. Come on. The solution to a problem is not to make that thing worse. That's where the cognitive dissonance comes in. Feel it. Feel it. Deal with the discomfort of it and do something about it.

That doesn't make it worse. Alex Pready was wrong. Alex Pretti was wrong. Not him, the man. Him being shot a gazillion times. For nothing was wrong. So impeach Trump, fight against Trump. No.

Now, that's not going to get the change. The change is that it's beyond right and left. It's just right and wrong and the consensus is clear, and the country is sick of it, and it wants different. That's where we got to get, and we can get there. See it for what it is, not what one side is telling you it needs to be. And no, I do not see equal blame.

This has nothing to do with left versus right. This is about the federal government, how it's using its power, it's abusing its power and how it is intentionally enabling chaos. Yes, the governor and the mayor and other politicians on the left have a role in the blame for this conflictual politics. Yes, if Minnesota handled it differently, the situation in Minnesota would be different likely, yes, but you can't put it on them. It has to start with the federal government. They have the most power and they have the most blame. That's how I see it. And no, not because of right and left.

I don't give a shit about right and left. I know it's killing us. I believe in right and wrong. And I'll tell you what that'll do. It'll give me very diverse partners, very diverse partners, because there's some Americans who will be with me on some stuff and there are other Americans will be with me on other stuff. And then we'll vote and we'll let it get figured it out. but we're not going to keep owning bullshit because we're on a side. No way. I'm not going to accept tariffs and a dead Alex Prattie because I like my tax cut. Because I think America should get more from its allies or that other people should pay more for NATO or that we should stay out of Ukraine or that we should have not done as much in the Middle East.

Whatever. Whatever. I'm not going to own and swallow a whole bunch of shit I don't believe in because of what I do. No. No, I'm not. I'm going to pick and choose like I do with everything else in my life. There's one person in your life that you choose to embrace despite all their flaws. That's your partner.

That's the choice you make. No, no, she's not perfect, he's not perfect. They are not perfect. They got a lot of fucked up things about them. So do you. But you make that choice. I'm not doing that with my politics. I'm not going to say, yeah, well, I'm going to stay a Democrat or I'm going to stay Republican because on balance.

No, fuck that balance. You're playing their game now. You're giving in to them and their interests. No, I want the tax cut and the less regular. And I do not want the tariffs. And I do not want. want you beating the shit out of people. And I do not want you canceling everybody who says what you don't like. Oh, now what is he? Is he left or right? He's reasonable. Okay? Because when you look at right and left,

you see reasonable. When you look at right and wrong, you see reasonable. When you look at right and left, you see advantage. You see the lesser of evils. We don't have to live that way. You don't sit with your kid and say, look, I'm going to let her take a shot tonight, even though she's only 15, because, look, she's staying away from those drugs and she's doing her homework. We don't make those kinds of compromises. No, no, no, no, no. Not this or that, this and that. Okay?

That's how we do it everywhere else. We've been duped. We've been pushed. We've been encouraged. We've been coaxed. We've been conditioned into doing it their way, playing for them. Not we the people. I'm going to read you this, all right?

I'm going to end on this. Because this is where we started and this is where we have to end. Okay? First principles. What is our first principle? You go back to the original, the inception document of when this group of colonies decided to be its own thing. We hold these truths, okay? Like this is what we believe.

Like this is how this shit is. You may think otherwise, but this is how we are here. All people are created equal. endowed with unalienable rights, meaning they don't come from the government. Now, look, from a political philosophy perspective, they come from the collective. Of course they do.

Why? Because it's a secular idea. It's not that God gave you these. That, you know, look, if you want to believe that, that's fine. It's just another way of saying they're natural. They're derived from just the nature of being human beings in a communal setting. Okay? Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

We just believe in those as virtues. They don't have to be, by the way. Lots of societies have said, no, those are not universal rights. They're privileges that either I give you or I don't because I'm stronger than you. But here, we say that they don't come from the government. We give that to the government. Okay, fine. Governments exist to secure these rights, right?

Now, look, again, from a political philosophy, you wouldn't need a government if they're natural rights. They would just be there and everybody would accept that. Yeah, but obviously that's not the way because of what I said before that. So we need government of and by and for the people. Deriving power from the governed. We the people take it back, motherfuckers, take it back. It is not about them. They work for us.

We don't work for them. And you have to see that because they are killing us for their own advantage. See it. And this is the most important line, and this is the one nobody knows. Governments exist to secure these rights deriving power from the governed with the right to alter or abolish oppressive governments. That's what we built in at the beginning, that you people in power are there because we put you there.

You know how you say sometimes to your kids? kid, I brought you in. I take you out. Why? Because in a very absolute sense, I made you. I make you. I unmake you. We've got to lean back into that. These people are not doing us a favor. Don't lean into what they need you to do and compromise so they can keep things the way they are. Lean into your cognitive dissonance. I don't want to be about this. So why would I say? support this. Well, because it's better than the other side. Fuck that. Fuck right and left. Get back to right and wrong. Lean into what you know to be true. Fight against what is not true and is not good for the majority. That is all. That is all we need to do. And then the answer is just

start to pop up. Get back to work. Fight over the affordability. What are you going to do with these corporations to bring down the cost of health care? How are you going to get big pharma to do anything it doesn't want to do? How are you going to make the money in politics go away? What are we going to agree on in terms of immigration enforcement? How are they going to do their job? Debate it. Give us your versions of how you want to see it go.

Let us reward you in the midterms. But back the fuck off what's happening right now. Because it's going to get worse and it's going to get even more out of control. And we're all going to pay the price. And that's why everywhere else in your life, when you see two people and it's getting out of control, what do you do? Slow down.

Hold on. Let cooler heads prevail. Find another way. When the kids are fighting, you stop them. Well, what if one's right? One's wrong. You don't let them keep fighting. Why?

Because nothing gets better that way. See, they don't give a fuck about better in the right and left world. They care about advantage. That is the answer to how one's in power, the other one's in power. Nothing changes. Why?

because they can check themselves. And as long as you reward them for checking themselves and keeping it at zero, that's not what checks and balances were. Checks and balances were to stop wild swings, not stop anything. We've perverted this system for their own advantage.

Take it back. Lean into the cognitive dissonance. Break away from right and left to get back to right and wrong. Minnesota is America. Oh no, it's blue and America's blue, red purple. The dynamic in Minneapolis is going to spread. Do you want it to spread in a way that is better than what we're seeing here or worse?

Yeah, but if the protesters would just stop, if the protesters would just stop, then what? You're okay with ice, just going anywhere it wants, any time it wants, any way it wants, grab it anyone it wants, and make it excuses for anything that's done wrong in a way that we have never seen with law enforcement in my lifetime. No, that's not what you want. And you know it. Lean into that. Well, we want to abolish ICE

and we don't want anybody to be enforcing these rules because it's just not that big a deal. No, you don't. You don't want that. You don't want that. It's going to lose your elections, but it's going to lose you more than that. This is not that complicated.

It's just not as easy as dividing for dollars and playing for clicks. social media. But if we don't decide to start doing what's hard, everything's going to get really, really bad. And I don't want that to happen. I don't want us to pay that price. But we all see where we're heading and we know it has to change. I'm Chris Cuomo. Thank you for subscribing and following. Thank you for checking out the different subscription levels on YouTube. Yes, I know that it is time for us to be forming community and talk. and sharing more and giving more and doing more, and I'm here for it, okay?

So you decide your level of involvement, you pick it. That's why I'm selling the critical thinker, the free agent, the I am different. Why? We got to break out of right and left, man. We got to get back to reasonable. That's where I rose put up these things. And I get why people say, man, listen, I don't want to love the right. What the fuck?

Look at what they're okay with. Look what their saying's okay. It's not my point. I'm not asking you to be Jesus. We have a Jesus figure because we needed a point of aspiration for this virtue of loving one another equally. That's why you need God, right? It's love one another the way I have loved you, meaning what? I gave you so many breaks, you pieces of shit.

I let my son die for you because I think you're worth it even though you're not and everything you do, I still believe in you. Love one another the way I have loved you and do it for the love of me if I'm so important to you. And my name is truth. Why? Because what is most true in life? Love, mercy, forgiveness. These are the superpowers. That's what I mean. Right, left, love. See what you say you're about. I don't give a shit about the sides. I'm not trying to equate the sides. I don't want you to embrace the other side. It's not what I'm saying. I'm saying get rid of the sides. If you say your life is about love and humanity and live and let live, then fuck the sides and lean into right and wrong. That's what I'm saying. That's the change. But that's hard.

Welcome the life. I'll see you at News Nation 8 p and midnight every weekday night. I'll see you here at Sirius XM. 124 every morning, 7 and 9. We'll be putting the special clip on YouTube. You can get whatever you want, wherever you want, whenever you want with me. And that's why I'm putting out all this content. That's why I'm trying to help. That's all there is. I just want to help. I'm not for a side unless it's the side of right against what's wrong. And that's going to switch from situation to situation. I'm okay with that. You should be also. In fact, that should be enough for both of us. Let's get after me.