“Daily Show” host Jon Stewart spent nearly 25 minutes on Monday unpacking the situation in Minneapolis, where federal agents shot and killed 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti last weekend while he was filming them.
Stewart tore into the shifting explanations by officials in the Trump administration as they attempted to justify Pretti’s killing, even accusing him ― without evidence ― of being a “domestic terrorist.” Trump officials continued to make accusations against Pretti as footage emerged from “every angle imaginable that contradicts the government’s version of events,” Stewart said.
Bystander footage showed Pretti holding a cellphone as he recorded the scene. Federal officers surrounded him, and in the ensuing scuffle, they discovered he had a concealed firearm, which he was licensed to carry. The agents took the gun as they wrestled with him on the ground and then shot him multiple times.
Stewart called the administration’s attempt to claim Pretti was a threat despite all the footage showing otherwise to be “the denial of the reality that we all witnessed.”
“They’re lying,” Stewart said. “We saw it. And that’s how brazen they lie when they know we’ve seen the truth. That’s how they lie when they know we know. Imagine how they lie when there’s no evidence to contradict them.”
