Fox News pundit falsely accuses Alex Pretti of ‘literally’ pulling gun on ICE after claiming Walz and Frey are ‘gaslighting’ public

Fox News contributor Joe Concha insisted over the weekend that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey were “gaslighting” the public about the shooting death of Alex Pretti, only to falsely accuse Pretti of “literally” pulling a gun on an immigration enforcement officer.

Concha’s egregious comments came as Fox News immediately rallied around and defended the Trump administration following the death of Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse who was shot 10 times by Border Patrol agents while serving as an observer. Over the weekend, Fox hosts and guests laid the blame for the shooting solely at Pretti’s feet while asserting the agents’ actions were fully justified.

Of course, this was the same thing the conservative cable giant did in the aftermath of an ICE officer killing Renee Good earlier this month, which saw the network’s pro-Trump stars adopt the administration’s false narrative while smearing the deceased mother.

Despite multiple videos and eyewitness testimonials largely showing the exact opposite, Trump officials have accused Pretti of “attacking” the officers while “brandishing” a loaded firearm, describing him as an “assassin” and “domestic terrorist” who was looking to “murder federal law enforcement” in a “massacre.”

Meanwhile, both Frey and Walz have called the shooting “sickening” and have said that President Donald Trump “must end this operation” in the state, as “Minnesota has had it,” all while blaming the Trump administration for sowing chaos and violence in the state amid its immigration crackdown.

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In a press conference shortly after Pretti’s death, Frey said he saw “more than six masked agents pummeling one of our constituents, shooting him to death,” which is supported by video evidence of the incident. “I’ve seen the videos, from several angles, and it’s sickening,” Walz added in another presser.

During Saturday evening’s broadcast of the Fox News panel program The Big Weekend Show, co-host Johnny Joey Jones accused Frey and Walz of hypocrisy for claiming the Department of Homeland Security had “rushed to judgment” on the Pretti shooting and was “wrong” for quickly posting a photo of a handgun that was purportedly retrieved from the slain nurse.

“I don’t understand how an agency providing information their agents gave them is rushing to judgment but the mayor using terms like ‘pummeling’ and ‘shot to death’ is not framing and judgment,” Jones wondered.

Concha, who also serves as a media critic for the right-wing network, quickly deduced that the top Democrats in Minnesota were trying to psychologically manipulate the public into believing something that was actually untrue. The Fox pundit then supported that allegation by making several dubious claims of his own.

“Frey and Walz are gaslighting with a nuclear blowtorch,” he exclaimed. “Because, obviously, this has now happened three times. Right? Where you had Nicole Good, who tried to – I don’t know if she intentionally tried to hit that ICE officer – but he was hit in the torso. There was internal bleeding. He had to react.”

Concha was, of course, referencing the killing of Good by an ICE officer earlier this month. Good, who was in an SUV, was shot multiple times at point blank range as she tried to drive away while ICE agent Jonathan Ross was near the front of her car.

Though Trump claimed Ross was viciously run over by the vehicle and other administration officials labeled Good a “domestic” terrorist, Ross only appeared to make light contact with the car and casually walked away from the incident – all while calling Good a “f***ing b***h.” A report that Ross suffered “internal bleeding” was published by CBS News, citing two anonymous Trump officials. That story has since faced heavy scrutiny and skepticism over its sourcing, including from CBS News editors.

After Concha also brought up an incident where a Venezuelan man was shot in the leg by ICE agents, claiming the officer was attacked by a “deadly weapon” despite contradicting accounts, he then turned to the Pretti shooting.

“And now, here, literally a guy pulled a gun on an ICE officer. He defends himself and they say, ‘Oh no, he was only attacked at this point,” Concha groused.

Concha ended his tirade by fuming over Frey calling for Trump to “act like a leader,” claiming that Minnesota needs to cooperate with ICE like other states before insulting Frey as a “human broomstick of a mayor.”

Meanwhile, despite Concha insisting that Pretti “literally” pulled a gun on an immigration officer, all facts that have been presented in the aftermath of the shooting suggest the polar opposite.

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Video and eyewitness analysis conducted by the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and the Wall Street Journal all reveal that Pretti did not have a firearm in his hands – nor was reaching for one – during his interaction with officers, which saw at least six agents gang tackle him and beat him on the ground after pepper-spraying him for assisting a woman who had been pushed to the ground by an officer.

It was only after one agent pulled Pretti’s firearm from his holster – Pretti was legally permitted to carry the gun – that an agent shot him from behind, followed by roughly 10 other shots as the nurse lay prone on the ground.

“The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump's murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed,” Pretti’s parents said in a statement over the weekend. “Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man.”

Over the weekend, Concha wasn’t alone on the network in terms of demonizing Pretti.

Fox & Friends Weekend host Charlie Hurt, for instance, said there was “only one person could have prevented this from happening, and it's Alex Pretti,” adding that he “should not have been there.” Other network commentators also falsely claimed that Pretti drew his gun on agents, adding that these officers “could have prevented a major mass shooting” of law enforcement.

At the same time, with it becoming abundantly clear over the past 24 hours that Pretti did not brandish a weapon at any point during the altercation, some at the pro-Trump network have pushed back against the administration’s narrative.

Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin, who has been described as the “network’s dedicated shill for federal immigration enforcement agencies,” reported that DHS staffers have grown “increasingly uneasy & frustrated” with the claims and talking points peddled by officials that are easily contradicted by video evidence.

“These sources say this messaging from DHS officials has been catastrophic from a PR and morale perspective, as it is eroding trust and credibility,” Melugin added. DHS chief Kristi Noem and Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino have both insisted Pretti wanted to do “maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”

During a Fox & Friends interview on Monday morning, host Griff Jenkins also repeatedly pressed Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche about Melugin’s report, asking if Blanche’s colleagues went “too far” in claiming Pretti committed “domestic terrorism.”