Jan.28

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Minneapolis Is Apparently the Hill that The White House Wants to Die On, Part VIII

There was quite a bit of news on the Minnesota front yesterday. Let's run down the biggest developments, at least briefly:

• Omar Attacked: Yesterday, while Rep. Ilhan Omar (DFL-MN) was holding a town hall, she was rushed by a man named Anthony James Kazmierczak, who tried to spray her in the face with some sort of chemical. The Representative was unhurt, and the would-be attacker was apprehended.
  
  Given that Donald Trump has constantly targeted Omar with vicious, often racist, rhetoric, one might say that he has some responsibility here. However, the President has a different explanation. He believes Omar is a "fraud" and that she paid Kazmierczak to spray her so as to engender sympathy. There's no problem that can't be solved with a nice conspiracy theory, we suppose. Did you ever notice, by the way, that when there is a right-wing protest (1/6, Kazmierczak), the protesters are actually paid actors? And when there is a left-wing protest (Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Portland), the protesters are... actually paid actors? The only difference is that George Soros pays for the faux left-wing protests, whereas it's not clear who's paying for the faux right-wing protests.
  
  Also, in a completely unrelated development, the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) released its annual report on threats against members of Congress. The number of threats the USCP investigated last year was 14,938, meaning that the first year of Trump's presidency saw a 58% increase. Don't doubt that when some members choose not to rebel against Trump, the concern is not political, it's personal safety.
  
  
• Ecuadorian Consulate: It is possible that the feds are recalibrating in Minnesota, but they are still trying to use strong-arm tactics. Yesterday, ICE agents tried (and failed) to force their way into the Ecuadorian consulate in Minneapolis. We have no idea why Ecuador, the 70th most populous nation in the world, would need to have a consulate in Minneapolis, the United States' 46th largest city, but there must be a reason. In any event, for American officials to (try to) invade is a major no-no.
  
  
• Quid Pro Quo: We really should be giving more attention to this subplot, but this whole situation is very big and very complicated and there's only so much time in the day. That said, we have noted that the Department of "Justice" has been trying to extort Minnesota to hand over a copy of its voter rolls. This is a transparent attempt to: (1) try to kick as many voters off the lists as possible, in advance of the 2026 elections, and (2) try to hunt down alleged "fraudulent" immigrant voters and arrest them.
  
  Following the killing of Alex Pretti, "Attorney General" Pam Bondi told Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon (DFL) that he could end the "chaos" if he would just give up the information. This is a pretty clear admission that at least part of the reason that ICE is in Minnesota is blackmail, and that the officers are acting as the Trump administration's Schutzstaffel. Yesterday, Simon made clear that the attempt at extortion won't work, and the answer is still "no."
  
  
• No Kings 3: In response to recent events, specifically "a secret police force terrorizing American communities," the third No Kings action has been scheduled for Saturday, March 28. If readers would like to sign up for updates, they can do so here.
  
  
• Alex Pretti, Part I: Yesterday, various outlets reported that Alex Pretti had a previous confrontation with federal officers, about a week before the fatal one, in which he was tackled and had a rib broken. People who are toting the ICE water say this reveals that Pretti was an agitator who deliberately goaded law enforcement officers into violent action. In our view, this news reveals... nothing. We saw the videos, and no matter what Pretti did or did not do a week before he was killed, he did nothing on that day to justify the use of lethal force, much less the use of lethal force 10 times.
  
  
• Alex Pretti, Part II: On that note, CNN and the Associated Press unearthed yet another video of the shooting, one that has about 6 minutes of activity leading up to Pretti's death. It makes clear, yet again, that the scene was calm and that Pretti was just exercising his First Amendment rights to protest before federal law enforcement turned up the temperature and caused the chaos that ended in Pretti's death.
  
  
• The Sharks Are Turning on One Another, Part I: We presume that every single person reading this believes (surely correctly) that White House Senior Adviser Stephen Miller is one of the driving forces behind what's happening in Minnesota. Most important, though, is that Donald Trump believes it. And now that things have become a mess, well, the President is at least temporarily uninterested in any further advice from his right-hand demon. And so, as the administration was trying to figure out how to "fix things" in Minneapolis, Miller was frozen out, and not allowed to be a part of the conversation.
  
  Miller may be one of the most evil people in the country, but he's not stupid, and he can certainly tell which way the winds are blowing. And so, in contrast to his insta-response where he slurred Alex Pretti as a terrorist and an assassin, Miller has changed his tune. He said yesterday that this may be the fault of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and her department, and that agents might not have been following "proper protocol" when Pretti was shot to death.
  
  We have never really understood what Miller offers Trump, other than muscle, flattery and loyalty. Yes, Trump values those things a great deal. Still, if this mess continues to spin out of control, it's at least conceivable that Miller's head could roll. Not likely, but not impossible anymore.
  
  
• The Sharks Are Turning on One Another, Part II: There is no way that Miller's head rolls before Noem (aka his preferred scapegoat) gets guillotined. She's not the sharpest knife in the drawer (the sharpest blade in the guillotine?), but she's got enough political smarts to realize that she might well be in a big game of hot potato right now, and she's at serious risk of being the one to get burned. So, at around the same time Miller was throwing her under the bus, she was throwing Miller under the bus, telling reporters that everything that her department has done was on the direct orders of Miller and Trump.
  
  Thus far, Noem is safe. On Monday evening she and Trump met for 2 hours. Hopefully she had some extra lip balm to help treat lips chapped from all the a**-kissing that went on. Following the meeting, Trump suggested he was happy with what he heard (before dozing off?) and said Noem is "doing a very good job."
  
  That might not be enough, though. Trump's feelings about a staffer can turn on a dime, especially when he thinks he can save himself by sacrificing them. Meanwhile, Noem may have become an anchor around his neck. Congressional Democrats are moving forward, with enthusiasm, with their plans to impeach her as soon as possible. If Noem stays on the job for the next 9 months, she will be wielded as a cudgel by the Democrats for the next 9 months. There are also Republicans who think she should be shown the door, among them Sens. Thom Tillis (NC) and Lisa Murkowski (AK). Noem may soon become more trouble than she's worth.

We still have plenty more Minneapolis material to cover, but we're going to stop there for today. Another entry Friday. (Z)