This IS Fascism. And Congress Won’t Save Us.
Sources
Benen, Steve. “Minnesota Quickly Rejects AG Pam Bondi’s Request for the State’s Voter Rolls.” MS NOW, January 26, 2026. https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/minnesota-quickly-rejects-ag-pam-bondis-request-for-the-states-voter-rolls.
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “Appropriations Watch: FY 2026-2026-01-23.” January 23, 2026. https://www.crfb.org/blogs/appropriations-watch-fy-2026.
Edmondson, Catie, and Carl Hulse. “Democrats Vow Not to Fund ICE After Shooting, Imperiling Spending Deal.” U.S. The New York Times, January 24, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/us/democrats-congress-reaction.html.
Lotz, Avery. “Judge Blocks Feds from Destroying Evidence in Minnesota Shooting.” Axios, January 25, 2026. https://www.axios.com/2026/01/25/minnesota-shooting-trump-evidence-lawsuit-pretti.
Mackey, Robert. “Alex Pretti Did Not Brandish Gun, Witnesses Say in Sworn Testimony.” US News. The Guardian, January 25, 2026. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/24/alex-pretti-killing-witness-testimony.
Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension & Hennepin County Attorney's Office v. Kristi Noem et al - Complaint, https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.230788/gov.uscourts.mnd.230788.1.0.pdf
Popli, Nik. “ICE Funding Bill Passes House Absent Changes Democrats Sought.” TIME, January 22, 2026. https://time.com/7357264/ice-funding-bill-dhs-congress/.
Romine, Taylor. “Several People Were Arrested for Protesting at a St. Paul Church. Here’s What We Know.” CNN, January 23, 2026. https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/23/us/st-paul-church-protest-minneapolis-what-we-know.
Stokes, Kyle. “Minnesota Takes Rare Legal Steps to Ensure Probe of Alex Pretti Shooting.” Axios, January 25, 2026. https://www.axios.com/local/twin-cities/2026/01/25/minnesota-rare-legal-steps-investigation-alex-pretti-shooting.
The New York Times. “Read a Witness Statement on the Pretti Shooting.” U.S. January 25, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/01/25/us/pretti-witness-statement-from-doctor.html.
The New York Times. “Read Bondi’s Letter to Minnesota’s Governor.” U.S. January 25, 2026.https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/01/24/us/pam-bondi-walz-doc.html.
Transcript
Hi it’s Monday, January 26th, 2026, you’re tuned into Why, America? I’m Leeja Miller in Minneapolis, a city reeling from Saturday’s murder of Alex Pretti, a 37 year old ICU nurse who was executed in the street by Trump’s state police a mile from where I’m sitting. A city that has not recovered from the state execution of Renee Good a couple weeks prior. A city that has not recovered from the mass shooting of children at Annunciation school a few months prior. A city that has not recovered from the police murder of George Floyd a few years prior. A city that is currently living under federal police occupation and despite claims by the regime that they are here to make us safer, to just target the worst of the worst of the illegal immigrants roaming our streets the world is watching and sees clear as day what is really happening here: US citizens are dying, 5 year olds are being abducted by the state, elders are being falsely accused of being illegal immigrants and dragged into the freezing snow in no clothes. And the unidentified masked gestapo causing the chaos is doing so gleefully, telling reporters it’s just like Call of Duty, how cool. That is the reality of life in parts of America right now. And I am so fucking sick of these headlines saying “Alex Pretti’s death is a turning point” and “we are sliding into fascism” WAKE THE FUCK UP, we are in it. We have been in it. People like me have been screaming about it. Alex Pretti’s death, while it should absolutely prompt swift action and all of our attention, it’s not a “turning point.” It is a very predictable outcome of what we have been experiencing for months under this regime. It is a very predictable outcome when you put a wannabe strongman dictator in the White House for a second time. It is a very predictable outcome when you vote to add 70 BILLION dollars to the DHS budget so they can quickly hire as many overpaid undertrained goons as possible, get them armed to the teeth, and then release them onto streets where real actual humans live and allow those goons to do anything with impunity. This was a foreseeable outcome when you put violent white nationalists at the head of the federal government. This was foreseeable. And Democrats in Congress have done fucking nothing. And Republicans in Congress have spurred it on. And the billionaires who own our politicians watch on gleefully. And we all have to suffer the consequences. Up to and including being executed in the streets. So no this is not a turning point, no we are not sliding into fascism, we are fucking in it. And so what I want to know is what the fuck our elected officials and the people in charge who we’ve given the power to, who WE pay with OUR tax dollars, what the fuck they’re going to do about it.
Today I’m going to get you up to speed on what’s been happening–we’re talking about the unfolding investigation into Alex Pretti’s execution, Pam Bondi’s attempt to blackmail the state into giving her our voter rolls, and the fight over the funding bill in Congress that is too little too late.
AD
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In the immediate aftermath of Alex Pretti’s execution on Saturday morning, DHS officials moved quickly to block off the scene and keep Minnesota state officials in the dark. Minnesota state officials then took the unprecedented step of obtaining a search warrant signed by a judge to force the feds to allow them to investigate the crime scene. They learned the hard way in the aftermath of Renee Good’s murder that the feds will do everything in their power to conceal and avoid any investigation at all. The reason the search warrant is unprecedented is because, again, Alex Pretti was executed in the street in broad daylight while people watched and filmed. Under no circumstances should it have been necessary for the state authorities to obtain a signed search warrant to access a crime scene in public on the street in their jurisdiction. The fact that it was necessary, and that there continues to be doubt around whether the feds will follow judges orders should be all the proof you need that our system is fully dysfunctional at this point.
On top of that, Minnesota state officials sued in court over the weekend and a judge issued a temporary restraining order Saturday, ordering Trump’s goons not to destroy or alter evidence related to Alex Pretti’s execution. According to Axios, quote “Minnesota's state official who investigates such shootings said in court filings he'd never seen federal agents block local access to a crime scene where both feds and the state had jurisdiction in 20 years on the job.” According to the official court filing from the state, quote “According to reports, federal personnel apparently seized cell phones and detained witnesses. It is unclear whether federal personnel otherwise processed the scene—let alone how carefully. Then just a few hours after the shooting, federal personnel left, allowing the perimeter to collapse and potentially spoiling evidence.” The fact that they needed a court order to access the crime scene and then a judge to tell the feds not to alter or destroy evidence is fucking abhorrent. Again, the system is not working. This is a system that has completely broken down. We are not sliding into fascism it is here it is at my fucking doorstep.
And the fascists continue to want you to disbelieve your own eyes. Within minutes of Alex Pretti’s execution, various Trump officials were already painting the narrative that he was brandishing a gun, that he was trying to massacre them, that he had attacked them, that they had acted in self defense. Similar to the Renee Good murder, the Trump regime took no time at all to create a narrative that painted Border Patrol as the victims in the situation, despite the fact that there was no investigation, there was no way for them to know that, and even preliminary videos coming out made it quite clear that that is not what unfolded. And in a separate lawsuit brought by the ACLU on behalf of protesters in Minnesota suing DHS and other Trump officials for the violations of their civil rights at the hands of ICE, lawyers submitted sworn testimony on Saturday by two people who witnessed the shooting of Alex Pretti and their statements directly contradict the Trump regime’s narrative. One woman was filming five feet away when Alex Pretti was executed. She said in her statement, quote “The agents pulled the man on the ground. I didn’t see him touch any of them – he wasn’t even turned toward them. It didn’t look like he was trying to resist, just trying to help the woman up. I didn’t see him with a gun. They threw him to the ground. Four or five agents had him on the ground and they just started shooting him. They shot him so many times … I don’t know why they shot him. He was only helping. I was five feet from him and they just shot him …”
She continued: “I have read the statement from DHS about what happened and it is wrong. The man did not approach the agents with a gun. He approached them with a camera. He was just trying to help a woman get up and they took him to the ground.
“I feel afraid. Only hours have passed since they shot a man right in front me, and I don’t feel like I can go home because I heard agents were looking for me. I don’t know what the agents will do when they find me. I do know that they’re not telling the truth about what happened.”
The other witness statement was made by a 29 year old physician who attempted to administer aid to Alex Pretti and said they did not see Pretti brandishing any weapon of any kind or attack the agents at all. When the physician attempted to administer CPR to Pretty, quote “At first the ICE agents wouldn’t let me through. But none of the ICE agents who were near the victim were performing CPR, and I could tell that the victim was in critical condition. I insisted that the ICE agents let me assess him.”
When the agents finally let the physician through, the statement says quote “As I approached, I saw that the victim was lying on his side and was surrounded by several ICE agents. I was confused as to why the victim was on his side, because that is not standard practice when a victim has been shot. Checking for a pulse and administering CPR is standard practice. Instead of doing either of those things, the ICE agents appeared to be counting his bullet wounds. I asked the ICE agents if the victim had a pulse, and they said they did not know. … I checked for a pulse, but I did not feel one. I immediately began CPR. Shortly after I started compressions, EMS personnel arrived and took over. I remained at the scene for about five more minutes, but protesters began to gather and the situation seemed to be escalating so I left and returned to my apartment. When I returned to my apartment, I was extremely distraught. I was sobbing and shaking uncontrollably. … I sought advice from a friend who works for the City of Minneapolis. He recommended that I shelter in place because the situation outside my apartment was so dangerous. I was going to follow his advice, but then ICE agents deployed tear gas on the crowd that had gathered below, and the tear gas began seeping into my apartment. At that point, I did not feel like I could stay in my apartment any longer. I packed an overnight bag, took the elevator down to the parking garage, and drove about six blocks to a friend’s house. I was still crying and shaking at this point, and I was barely able to speak.”
This is what’s happening on the streets in the United States. And the regime would have you believe they are the victims here. To add insult to grave injury, on Saturday Pam Bondi sent a letter to our governor Tim Walz that truly amounts to extortion at this point. In it, she said the same lines we’ve heard out of Kristi Noem and other Trump goons attempting to paint Minnesota and Minneapolis as a lawless corrupt place. She blamed Walz, Mayor Frey, Attorney General Keith Ellison of inciting the violence by refusing to cooperate with ICE and by comparing ICE to a modern day gestapo who we do not want in our streets. She also pointed to the protest at a church last week that has become a popular talking point for the regime to try to prove that protesters are violent, out of control, and attacking innocent Christians. To be clear, it is true that around 40 protesters entered a church in St. Paul on Sunday January 18th and disrupted Sunday services. They called out a pastor at the church, David Eastwood for being one of the local heads of ICE. They chanted and yelled. Multiple people were arrested. The people inside the church were scared, and one affidavit claims someone fell and broke their arm trying to flee the church. Ongoing lawsuits brought by the Trump regime related to the incident claim this was a violation of parishioners' freedom of religion. Meanwhile they are claiming it is perfectly fine for masked ICE agents to terrorize black and brown people attempting to attend church services, that ICE is perfectly free to wander into churches and arrest whoever they want.
They are only mad about this specific instance of an alleged “violation of religious liberties” and they are now wielding it as justification for increased ICE presence on our streets. Even though the protest happened because of the increased ICE presence on our streets. She also points to the quote "unprecedented financial fraud occurring on your watch.” She says “the out of control fraud in your state also implicates election security.” Again, taking something and wielding it to exert the will of the Trump regime on a state they have picked as a target not because they actually give a shit about fraud–if they did they could start in the White House. It’s a vendetta against a blue state that never once voted for Trump, a state where Trump wasn’t allowed to exert all the power he wanted during the summer when George Floyd was killed, because back then he still had a couple advisors that gave a shit about following precedent and laws, a state whose governor ran against Trump’s ticket in the most recent presidential elections. It is a vendetta and the Trump regime is using whatever it can to justify continued crackdown. And Pam Bondi took it a step further, using the situation on the ground where, again, US citizens are being executed at point blank range in the streets, as blackmail. She says well it’s your fault all of this is happening, you brought this upon yourself, but we’d be willing to help you out of this predicament if you do a few things for us. Saying quote “First, share all of Minnesota’s records on Medicaid and Food and Nutrition Service programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition assistance Program data, with the federal government. … Second, repeal the sanctuary policies that have led to so much crime and violence in your state. … Third, allow the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice to access voter rolls to confirm that Minnesota’s voter registration practices comply with federal law.”
In response to the letter, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said quote “The answer to Attorney General Bondi’s request is no. Her letter is an outrageous attempt to coerce Minnesota into giving the federal government private data on millions of U.S. Citizens in violation of state and federal law. This comes after repeated and failed attempts by the DOJ to pressure my office into providing the same data. […]
Our position on the federal government’s request to access Minnesota voting records starts and ends with the law. The law does not give the federal government the authority to obtain this private data. … In Minnesota, we will continue to follow the letter of the law, which requires us to protect the private data of our voters.
It is deeply disturbing that the U.S. Attorney General would make this unlawful request a part of an apparent ransom to pay for our state’s peace and security. More broadly, the federal government must end the unprecedented and deadly occupation of our state immediately.” SO, again, just so we’re clear, in response to an execution in the streets of a US city at the hands of federal agents, the Attorney General sent a ransom note to the governor of Minnesota saying all of this could end if you turn over voter information, in violation of state and federal law. The same attorney general who works for a man who to this day continues to be obsessed with the 2020 election that he lost that every court that has decided a case on the matter has determined he lost, that there still just is zero evidence that fraud existed, and that there continues to be study after study showing that voter fraud in this country is incredibly rare and absolutely not widespread enough to have impacted the outcomes of our elections. That is how the country’s top law enforcement official is conducting herself in response to the execution of Alex Pretti. It’s fucking despicable and further proof that this system is absolutely fucking broken.
And it’s absolutely fucking broken in Congress as well. Remember how last year we had that whole multi-month government shut down that fucking sucked and then Democrats caved on the health insurance premiums thing that started the whole shut down to begin with? Yeah so that shutdown ended not with a long-term spending bill that would keep the whole government open for another year but instead with a few year-long bills and a bunch of kick the can down the road bills. And now we’ve arrived back at the can we kicked down the road a few months ago.
One of those funding bills that Congress needs to vote on is a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, border patrol, etc. The bill as it stands would allocate nearly $65 billion dollars to DHS, including 10 billion to ICE. Despite Democrats’ demands that the bill include bans on detaining US citizens and using certain forms of force, those bans didn’t make it into the final bill. Nevertheless, seven shameful Democratic representatives voted to continue DHS funding. They are: Henry Cuellar of Texas, Don Davis of North Carolina, Laura Gillen of New York, Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, Jared Golden of Maine, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, and Tom Suozzi of New York. May they never know a moment of peace.
The bill passed in the house thanks to the votes of those 7 democratic representatives and now the Senate takes it up. Between the passage in the house and the vote in the Senate, Alex Pretti was executed in the street. 60 votes are needed in the Senate to advance the funding bill. And it’s a full appropriations bill so as it stands the DHS funding is just part of the larger bill. If that doesn’t pass, none of it will pass, and we may see another government shutdown at the end of this week, friday night, though it would be a partial shutdown and not a full shutdown like we experienced last year. Spineless Chuck Schumer claimed that Democrats will not provide the votes necessary to proceed with the bill, but we’ve now seen him step down from the fight twice over spending bills in the last year, so I’m not holding my breath on that, even with all the performative outrage coming from Democrats and Republicans in Congress. According to the New York Times, quote “hours after the killing on Saturday, a flood of Democrats who had previously been seen as likely to support the deal declared that they simply could not do so.”
The problem with this is that it is too little too late from the so-called “opposition party” in Congress. $10 billion dollars for ICE is small fucking potatoes compared to the 75 BILLION DOLLARS they already approved in the so called Big Beautiful Bill last year. That money is already allocated for ICE to tap into, no matter what appropriations bill finally gets passed in Congress now. And if the government does shut down, which it is set to do on Friday at midnight, that would impact ALL of the departments that have not been funded, including defense, labor, health and human services, education, transportation yes that means airports, and housing and urban development. Things like SNAP benefits would NOT be impacted, those have been funded through September. HOWEVER republican head of the appropriations committee Susan Collins has indicated she is investigating whether the bill funding DHS can be separated from the other bills, so that the other bills can get passed and the fight over DHS funding can continue without a partial government shutdown. That would certainly at the very least allow Democrats to continue putting up a fight in Congress without a shutdown that could negatively impact many different unrelated parts of the government.
So once again, as per usual, it is very clear that no one at least from the federal government is going to fucking save us. So what do we do? The same thing I say every day–we focus on the hyper local because that’s all we have. My video from Saturday lays out some of the tactics that are being used here on the ground in Minneapolis to build up the resistance, those need to be exported around the country. The key thing is to make sure you know your neighbors. And make sure you have the ear of the local officials who represent you. They are the ones who can speak directly to the feds, they are the ones filing the lawsuits on behalf of states and cities against the feds, and you have so much more agency at the local level than you do at the national level. Action is the antidote to anxiety. What action can you take, today, however small, to reach out to your neighbors or get involved in your community and give of your time or your energy in some way? Again, it doesn’t have to be a grand gesture, it can be volunteering for the food pantry or donating money or checking in on your neighbor. Small acts of resistance every day are how we build a movement. That’s all we can do right now.
If you’d like to support my work heading into a brand new year of horrors, consider joining here on YouTube by clicking the big join button below, or supporting me over on Patreon, patreon dot com slash Leeja miller, where you get access to all these episodes completely ad free. Thank you to my multi-platinum patrons Christopher Cowan, Evan Friedley, Marc, Sarah Shelby, Art, David, L’etranger (Lukus), Thomas Johnson, and Tay. Your generosity makes this channel what it is, so thank you!
And if you liked this episode, you’ll like my episode from Saturday with updates on the ground in Minneapolis.
