Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama released statements on Sunday critical of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent. Both presidents expressed sympathy over Pretti’s death while criticizing the string of events that led to it. They also lamented the recent events in Minnesota and condemned the conduct and actions of federal agents. Both considered it a pivotal moment for the country’s future.
“In recent weeks, we’ve watched horrible scenes play out in Minneapolis and other communities that I never thought would take place in America,” Clinton said in his statement. “People, including children, have been seized from their homes, workplaces, and the street by masked federal agents.”
“Peaceful protesters and citizens exercising their constitutional right to observe and document law enforcement have been arrested, beaten, teargassed, and most searingly, in the cases of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, shot and killed,” Clinton said.
Obama expressed similar sentiments, calling Pretti’s death a “tragedy” and claiming that the nation’s values were “under assault.”
“The killing of Alex Pretti is a heartbreaking tragedy,” said Obama. “It should also be a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.”
He then proceeded to blast federal law enforcement officials, claiming they engaged in reckless behavior “designed to intimidate and harass” while lacking “discipline and accountability.” He said that Americans were “rightly outraged” over the agents’ behavior amid recent events.
“For weeks now, people across the country have been rightly outraged by the spectacle of masked ICE recruits and other federal agents acting with impunity and engaging in tactics that seem designed to intimidate, harass, provoke, and endanger the residents of a major American city,” Obama said. “These unprecedented tactics — which even the former top lawyer of the Department of Homeland Security in the first Trump administration has characterized as embarrassing, lawless, and cruel — have now resulted in the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens.”
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE FATAL SHOOTING INVOLVING BORDER PATROL IN MINNESOTA
Clinton said Pretti’s death was “unacceptable” and unavoidable while claiming the Trump administration was lying to Americans while promoting “aggressive and antagonistic tactics.
“All of this is unacceptable and should have been avoided,” Clinton said. “To make matters even worse, at every turn, the people in charge have lied to us, told us not to believe what we’ve seen with our own eyes, and pushed increasingly aggressive and antagonistic tactics, including impeding investigations by local authorities.”
Several Republicans dismissed the comments by former presidents, including Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), who referenced a controversial event during Clinton’s presidency.
“You bombed an aspirin factory to take your bad decisions out of the headlines,” Burchett said. “I’d sit this one out.”
