Paul Mauro
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MMA
Study: Fox News smeared Alex Pretti dozens of times following his killing by federal agents
In the week following Pretti’s killing by DHS, figures on Fox News made at least 75 claims blaming Pretti for his own death or contradicting video evidence
Written by Harrison Ray & Isabella Sherk
Research contributions from Tyler Monroe & Rob Savillo
Published 02/06/26 9:58 AM EST
On January 24, Customs and Border Protection agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old Minnesota intensive care nurse, during immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis. In the week that followed, Fox News personalities and guests made at least 75 claims about Pretti that either wrongly alleged that he had been violent toward federal agents or directly blamed him for his own killing.
- Video verified by ABC News showed Pretti holding his phone to record CBP agents as a masked agent knocked a woman to the ground, then pepper-sprayed Pretti when he stepped between them. Shortly after, multiple agents pulled him to the ground before two agents fired approximately 10 shots at Pretti, killing him.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and figures from the Department of Homeland Security quickly made public statements claiming Pretti had intended to “massacre law enforcement,” commit “an act of domestic terrorism,” and “inflict maximum damage” — despite video evidence directly contradicting their claims.
In the hours following the shooting, Fox News began running with the Trump administration's narrative and parroting its talking points. Network figures and guests quoted or aired the administration's misleading and false statements at least 22 times in 24 hours after the news broke.
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From the January 25, 2026, edition of Fox New's Fox & Friends Weekend
- ## Fox News made at least 75 claims that contradicted video evidence or blamed Pretti for his own death
- Media Matters reviewed Fox News programming from January 24-30 and found that network guests and personalities made at least 75 claims attacking Pretti — either falsely claiming Pretti was violent toward federal agents or blaming him for his own killing.
Fox’s weekend shows airing just after the shooting made the most claims attacking Pretti. On January 24 alone, network figures and guests made at least 32 such claims. As video evidence became harder and harder to refute into the week, shows hosted by Will Cain, Jesse Watters, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham aired the most claims attacking Pretti among all of Fox’s weekday programming.
The number of daily claims against Pretti declined over the following days until footage of a January 13 incident involving Pretti and DHS agents resurfaced on January 28. Fox personalities seized on the footage to once again cast Pretti as an aggressor against federal agents, with the network airing at least 10 additional attacks even as his family stressed that “nothing that happened a full week before could possibly have justified Alex's killing at the hands of ICE.”
Despite their pleas, Fox host Jesse Watters told viewers that in the new video, Pretti “looks like a dangerous, hostile, unhinged male nurse with a loaded weapon who went back for more a week later.”
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From the January 29, 2026, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime
- Figures on Fox News repeatedly argued that Pretti’s decision to carry a gun justified his killing, with anchor Jon Scott asking why anyone would go to a protest with “a semiautomatic handgun and a couple of magazines,” and former acting ICE Director Jonathan Fahey even claiming the agents “very well could have prevented a major mass shooting of multiple officers.”
Fox News contributors and guests also repeatedly contradicted video evidence by insisting Pretti had behaved aggressively or brandished a weapon. Fox contributor Paul Mauro claimed agents were only “trying to subdue him without using deadly force” when Pretti “pulls out that 9 mm,” former DHS official Charles Marino asserted that Pretti “showed up to this protest, intended to obstruct and confront law enforcement agents, and it turned out badly for him,” and right-wing activist Chris Rufo described him as “a violent leftist agitator … seeking armed conflict with the police.”
Former prosecutor Andrew Cherkasky described the shooting as “essentially a suicide-by-cop type of scenario,” claiming, “It's long been known if you're going to fight with cops and resist in situations that are escalating like this, it is a death wish.”
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From the January 24, 2026, edition of Fox News' Fox Reports with Jon Scott
- Not all Fox personalities embraced the Trump administration’s narrative. Late on January 24, contributor Ted Williams broke with the prevailing Fox coverage, saying that the administration put out a “misrepresentation” of what took place in the video. He continued, “This man is dead, he has a family, and to go out and call him a domestic terrorist without giving any more information is just unacceptable.”
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From Fox News' live coverage on January 24, 2026
- Fox contributor Trey Gowdy even compared Pretti to Kyle Rittenhouse, adding, “Alex Pretti's firearm was lawfully being carried. It's lawful to carry a gun in Minnesota. He never brandished it. He didn't point it at the cops. … We certainly should not be labelling him as a domestic terrorist who's going to execute cops. There's no evidence to support that.”
But many others on the network continued to churn out false statements and justifications for Pretti’s killing.
- ## Methodology...
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mma 624
PAUL MAURO (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): One of two things is going to happen here. Either you are going to end up with a capital case which is going to go on forever in which case we're responsible for their care and feeding or you don't get the capital case and assuming they are guilty and convicted, which they are still just the accused, we are then responsible for their care and feeding.
And in the old days — and I'm talking the old days in the deep, dark past of maybe five, six years ago — folks like that you capture who are going to be in jail for a long time in some instances the bureau of prisons in any state or federally can say: "You know what? Why should we have to pay for this character? Let's get him out of here. We'll send him back to his own country at some point so that we're not responsible for him until he's old and gray." That option is off the table. Now you wouldn't use it in a murder case anyway but in the situation that we're facing with all of these migrants, we don't have that option anymore because they are going to come right back.
So realistically they are here for good and from where I sit, Dana, this has now morphed into biowarfare. These guys are smart weapons, they are bioweapons deployed against America. They are killing Americans and we don't seem to be really catching anybody's attention in Washington to stop it.
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