Bill O’Reilly believes the media doesn’t really care about Alex Pretti – but are using the ICE shooting victim’s death in an ongoing “destroy Trump” campaign.
The “No Spin News” host and former Fox News anchor, normally measured in his conservative takes, has been extra feisty since his return from a four-day hospital stay for a hereditary internal bleeding disorder, and took last week’s fatal ICE shooting straight to his favorite target: the American media.
“I don’t think the media cares about Alex Pretti, the man shot to death on Saturday, a 37-year-old nurse,” a fired-up O’Reilly said. “You think the media cares about him at all? I think they’re using a dead man to try to damage the Trump administration. That’s what I think they’re doing. Don’t care about him, and I’m going to make my case right now.”
O’Reilly noted that Pretti was carrying a loaded weapon last week when he “tried to interfere” with Border Patrol agents attempting to detain a woman: “That alone is insane.”
He also noted that since the shooting, mainstream outlets have reported that Pretti had clashed with ICE agents before.
“Wasn’t the first time,” he said. “CNN is reporting that Pretti did it another time and had his ribs broken in a fracas with federal agents. Anyway, Pretti, despite being a nurse and all that, was a very militant activist. That’s who he was. That doesn’t mean he should be dead. But let’s be honest about the situation, OK?”
Videos of the struggle show that Pretti was holding a cell phone, and that agents removed the gun he was carrying before any shots were fired – though the officers repeatedly shouted “he’s got a gun.”
“OK. Horrible. Everybody — any sane person — acknowledges that,” O’Reilly continued. “But as I said yesterday, Mr. Pretti brought the tragedy, the end of his life, on himself. You do not bring a loaded weapon to a law enforcement operation confronting agents — local, state, federal, doesn’t matter. That’s known as suicide by cop to do that. You did it.”
O’Reilly then rolled clips of media reports, including CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, who said: “FBI Director Kash Patel said on Sunday that he kind of had to walk back yesterday because that he had a permit. He was allowed to carry that weapon. It was perfectly legal for him to have it, according to the police chief there in Minneapolis.”
“Are you insane?” O’Reilly barked. “These are just stupid people. … It’s legal for him to carry it, and he carries it into a police confrontation, and you’re somehow trying to justify that? … These people are so irresponsible. … CNN’s hopeless. You can’t rehab it. You can’t do anything with it. It’s a hopeless thing. All they do is, ‘We want to get Trump every day, every way.’”
O’Reilly concluded that the American citizenry just wants things brought under control in Minneapolis.
“I know as a journalist that the hate-Trump movement — destroy Trump — is far more concerned with doing that than protecting Alex Pretti or Ms. Good or anybody else. I know that they would rather people die. If they can get Trump, it’s fine.”
Watch the entire video in the clip above.
