JD Vance has scoffed at the idea of apologizing to the family of Alex Pretti for boosting claims the slain nurse was an “assassin,” arguing it wouldn’t be “fair” to the federal agents who killed him.
“For what?” the vice president said in a Tuesday interview with The Daily Mail when asked if he planned to issue an apology.
Federal immigration agents shot Pretti dead on a Minneapolis street last month in a shocking confrontation that was caught on camera, sparking a furious uproar after the White House’s account of the killing was exposed as a lie.
Pretti, who was armed and held a concealed carry permit, did not brandish his weapon at the agents before being tackled to the ground. Nor did he make any attempt to “attack” the agents as top Trump officials had claimed.
The agents further disarmed him before shooting him ten times in quick succession.
Vance, pressed on whether he should say sorry for spreading a false narrative on the shooting, appeared to grow agitated while offering a mind-boggling defense of his remarks, saying it’s “not smart to prejudge” what happened and not “fair” to the federal immigration agents who killed Pretti to walk back his earlier claims.
In the aftermath of Pretti’s killing, Vance amplified online claims by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller that Pretti was somehow an “assassin” who’d attempted “to murder federal agents.”
President Donald Trump has since said he does not agree with Miller’s assessment, which is also directly contradicted by footage of the shooting.
Miller himself has also now clarified that his statements were made before he actually knew what had happened. The Justice Department has opened a federal civil rights investigation into the shooting, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said last week.
Vance said he wants to await the results of that probe before deciding whether he owes Pretti’s family an apology.
“I’m not going to prejudge these guys. I think that everybody is deserved the presumption of innocence in the American system of justice,” he told the Mail of his refusal to rescind the blame he’s otherwise placed on Pretti.
“I’m not going to engage in conjecture about the different permutations of how this or that officer might have violated the law,” he went on. “Let’s do the investigation.”
The Mail’s reporter then pressed Vance on whether he would consider apologizing in the event that probe determined the agents were at fault in Pretti’s slaying.
“If this hypothetical leads to that hypothetical leads to that hypothetical, will I do a thing?” he shot back. “Again, like I said. We’re going to let the investigation determine.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment on this story.
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