Former U.S. President Bill Clinton issued a forceful statement condemning what he described as “horrible scenes” in Minneapolis and other communities following the fatal shooting of U.S. citizen Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents. Clinton said these were scenes he “never thought would take place in America.”
Clinton said that people — “including children” — were being seized from their homes, workplaces, and streets by masked federal agents. He criticized the deployment of federal forces and said peaceful protesters and citizens exercising their constitutional rights to observe and document law enforcement were being **arrested, beaten, tear-gassed, and, most painfully, in the cases of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, shot and killed.”
“All of this is unacceptable and should have been avoided,” Clinton stated, stressing that the government’s response was deeply wrong and unjustifiable.
He sharply criticized senior officials, saying that “the people in charge have lied to us, told us not to believe what we’ve seen with our own eyes, and pushed increasingly aggressive and antagonistic tactics, including impeding investigations by local authorities.”
Clinton warned that the United States is facing a historic and defining moment:
“Over the course of a lifetime, we face only a few moments where the decisions we make and the actions we take will shape our history for years to come. This is one of them. If we give our freedoms away after 250 years, we might never get them back.”
He concluded with a call to citizens, urging Americans who believe in the promise of democracy to “stand up, speak out, and show that this nation still belongs to We the People.”
The shooting of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis has sparked widespread outrage and protests nationwide, with video evidence contradicting official accounts and leading to criticism from multiple U.S. political figures, including Clinton and former President Barack Obama.
