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A Republican candidate has dropped out of the race for governor in Minnesota following a federal agent’s killing of nurse Alex Pretti over the weekend. Minneapolis attorney Chris Madel announced he was leaving the race on Monday in a video announcement, saying that he could not support the “stated retribution on the citizens of our state, nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so.”I am ending my campaign for Minnesota Governor. I describe why in the below video. Please watch until the end. (It is 10 minutes, 52 seconds.)Thank you,Chris pic.twitter.com/2nfyAyTzNZ— Chris Madel (@CWMadel) January 26, 2026Madel said that he supported the initially stated goals of ICE and the federal government in Minnesota of deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal records, but that federal action in the state has gone far “beyond its stated focus on true public safety threats.”“United States citizens, particularly those of color, live in fear. United States citizens are carrying papers to prove their citizenship. That’s wrong,” Madel said in the video, adding that he had read reports of U.S. citizens being detained by ICE agents “due to the color of their skin” and spoken to those allegedly targeted by federal agents.  “Driving while Hispanic is not a crime,” Madel said. “Neither is driving while Asian.”Madel was a top contender in the Republican primary, finishing among the top three in polls. He criticized the rest of his party in his message. “National Republicans have made it nearly impossible for a Republican to win a statewide election in Minnesota,” Madel said. Madel was not a maverick in his party: He had provided legal assistance to Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot and killed Minneapolis mother Renee Good earlier this month. Madel still stressed his support for President Trump, saying that while federal actions in Minnesota were an “unmitigated disaster,” many people “unfairly do not provide the president with nearly enough credit,” citing his “ceasefire” in Gaza, his proposal for a 10 percent cap on credit card interest, and his work to get NATO countries to increase their defense spending. All of this shows that Trump’s efforts are starting to backfire among all Minnesotans, not just Democrats or left-leaning people in the Twin Cities. Republicans in the state, even true believers like Madel, are beginning to see ICE’s actions for what they are: an attempt to assert control over Minnesota using violence. Even Republicans outside of the state are starting to wake up. 

Federal agents have terrorized, shot, and killed Minnesotans under the guise of advancing the Trump administration’s immigration goals—but the real victims, according to some officials, are ICE and Border Patrol.Reacting to video footage of ICE’s lethal attack on ICU nurse Alex Pretti, CBP chief Greg Bovino unequivocally told CNN Sunday how he interpreted the situation, which involved several masked agents pinning Pretti on the ground before shooting him nearly a dozen times.“With respect, it feels as though in some ways you’re blaming the victim here,” said host Dana Bash.“The victims are the Border Patrol agents. I’m not blaming the Border Patrol agents. The victims are the Border Patrol agents,” Bovino said. “The suspect put himself in that situation.”Pretti, a well-respected nurse who worked with veterans, was out on the streets of Minneapolis Saturday morning protesting the death of Renee Nicole Good, who was similarly shot point-blank several times earlier this month by a masked ICE agent shortly after dropping her child off at school.Moments before Pretti’s death, video captured from onlookers at multiple angles depicted the 37-year-old filming ICE activity before intervening between another protester and an agent who had violently shoved her to the ground. The two protesters were then sprayed with a chemical irritant, and Pretti was ripped away from the other demonstrator while she continued to slip on a mound of snow.At least seven officers were on top of Pretti, wrestling him to the ground, when one of them, standing above the situation and seemingly supporting the other agents, grabbed his gun and shot Pretti. Video footage captured audio of 10 gunshots ringing out. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin claimed that the officer who killed Pretti was “fearing for his life” when he reached for his weapon.“The officers attempted to disarm the suspect but the armed suspect violently resisted,” McLaughlin said. “Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, an agent fired defensive shots.”McLaughlin noted that Pretti was pronounced dead on the scene by medics.More protests have swept Minneapolis in the wake of Pretti’s death, and Governor Tim Walz activated the Minnesota National Guard to contend with Washington’s overstep.

Drop Site Daily: January 26, 2026

See, Republicans: calling out your party for supporting the murder of American citizens isn’t that hard!

Senate Democrats are threatening to withhold funding to the Department of Homeland Security in the wake of the latest civilian killing in Minneapolis. Federal immigration agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, on Saturday morning, the second time this month that federal agents have killed a civilian.On Capitol Hill, multiple Democratic senators warned that they would not approve a $1.2 trillion package to keep the federal government open if it includes appropriations for the DHS, according to NBC News. The bill was first approved in the House last week with the help of seven Democrats.“What’s happening in Minnesota is appalling—and unacceptable in any American city,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in a statement Saturday. “Democrats sought common sense reforms in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, but because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE.”“Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included,” he added. The Democratic Party’s weakest links in the Senate have also voiced their refusal to support funding DHS. Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, who was one of eight Democrats to break with her party’s standoff over funding for the Affordable Care Act last year, said that other funding measures could pass, but not one for DHS.“The Trump Administration and Kristi Noem are putting undertrained, combative federal agents on the streets with no accountability. They are oppressing Americans and are at odds with local law enforcement,” Cortez Masto said. “This is clearly not about keeping Americans safe, it’s brutalizing U.S. citizens and law-abiding immigrants.”Senator Jacky Rosen, another Democrat from Nevada who broke with her party over the last shutdown, also said she opposed “any government funding package that contains the bill that funds this agency, until we have guardrails in place to curtail these abuses of power and ensure more accountability and transparency.”Senator Tim Kaine, a third former defector, came out against the bill even before Pretti’s killing. He argued that Congress shouldn’t validate a president who is “acting chaotically and unlawfully.”A few Republican senators have also criticized Pretti’s killing, calling for an independent investigation into the incident, but there has been no indication they intend to do anything to protect American citizens from ICE violence.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche went on Fox News Monday morning to attempt to walk back the baseless and absurd claims from many top officials in the Trump administration that Alex Pretti was committing an act of “domestic terrorism” before he was killed by federal agents in Minneapolis.Blanche was questioned during a segment about the internal strife within federal law enforcement ranks over how the Trump administration has responded to Pretti’s shooting. “This is coming to a head, Todd. I ask you, based on the DOJ’s purview: Do the actions of Alex Pretti amount to domestic terrorism?” Fox & Friends co-host Griff Jenkins asked.“Look we’re—it’s an investigation. So I’m not going to prejudge what his actions were or were not,” Blanche said, in stark contrast to the rest of President Trump’s Cabinet. “There’s two things that have to be part of this narrative.… Number one is the reason why that happened on Saturday is because we get zero cooperation from police.” Blanche went on to blame local law enforcement before the anchor interrupted him. “With all due respect 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 has a legal definition of domestic terrorism, and it doesn’t appear to most of the country that watched the available video … 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.” “Look I don’t think anybody thinks that they were comparing what happened on Saturday to domestic terrorism,” Blanche said. “What we saw was a very violent altercation.…  I am not going to prejudge the facts.” FOX & FRIENDS: Do the actions of Alex Pretti amount to domestic terrorism?BLANCHE: Look, it's an investigation, so I'm not going to prejudgeFOX: It doesn't appear to most of the country to have met that definitionBLANCHE: I don't think anybody thinks they were comparing… pic.twitter.com/kkHFADtukS— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 26, 2026That’s exactly what Blanche’s colleagues did in the immediate aftermath of Pretti’s killing.  Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, and Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino each came out and told us that Pretti meant to do violence and incite terror, deciding that their own warped version of events was the truth before any kind of investigation started. “A domestic terrorist tried to assassinate federal law enforcement, and this is your response?” Miller wrote Saturday on X, responding to Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar condemning the killing. “You and the state’s entire Democrat leadership team have been flaming the flames of insurrection for the singular purpose of stopping the deportation of illegals who invaded the country.”“This individual went and impeded their law enforcement operations, attacked those officers, had a weapon on him and multiple dozens of rounds of ammunition, wishing to inflict harm on these officers, coming, brandishing like that,” Noem said Saturday.“He brought a semiautomatic weapon to a riot, assaulted federal officers, and at some point, they saw that weapon,” Bovino said. “So, I do believe [Secretary Noem] is 100% spot-on in what she said.”It’s hard to believe anything that Blanche says here when this false narrative has already been established.