Joe Biden Decries Alex Pretti, Renee Good Shooting Deaths By Federal Agents: “We Are Not A Nation That Guns Down Our Citizens In The Street”
Joe Biden is the latest former president to condemn the shooting of Alex Pretti by federal agents, as he said that residents of Minnesota “have suffered enough at the hands of this administration.”
Biden’s statement, following ones from Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, also mentioned the shooting death of Renee Good earlier this month, and called for “full, fair and transparent investigations.”
Pretti was shot by one or more federal agents on Saturday in Minneapolis, leading to further nationwide outrage over the tactics used by the Trump administration in its immigration crackdown.
Biden’s statement, posted on X, read, “What has unfolded in Minneapolis this past month betrays our most basic values as Americans. We are not a nation that guns down our citizens in the street. We are not a nation that allows our citizens to be brutalized for exercising their constitutional rights. We are not a nation that tramples the 4th Amendment and tolerates our neighbors being terrorized. The people of Minnesota have stood strong — helping community members in unimaginable circumstances, speaking out against injustice when they see it, and holding our government accountable to the people. Minnesotans have reminded us all what it is to be American, and they have suffered enough at the hands of this Administration. Violence and terror have no place in the United States of America, especially when it’s our own government targeting American citizens.
“No single person can destroy what America stands for and believes in, not even a President, if we — all of America — stand up and speak out. We know who we are. It’s time to show the world. More importantly, it’s time to show ourselves.”
The White House has blamed Democrats, and the Biden administration, for the shooting deaths, citing lax immigration policies. But video of the death of Pretti refutes initial claims from top Trump administration officials that he was a “domestic terrorist.” A newly released video that ran on CNN, capturing the time before the shooting of Pretti, added further fuel to the falsity of the government’s claims.
