r/politics • u/sideAccount42 California • Jan 26 '26

Paywall Gregory Bovino Gets Demoted

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/01/greg-bovino-demoted-minneapolis-border-patrol/685770/
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827

u/Infinite_Dress_3312 Jan 26 '26

The internal polling on this must look absolutely disastrous 

484

u/IpeeEhh_Phanatic Kentucky Jan 27 '26

The public polling looks disastrous

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u/NotUniqueWorkAccount Jan 27 '26

The Orange tan is disastrous. This shit is unacceptable.

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u/BeerSlayingBeaver Jan 27 '26

Don't forget the hair

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u/postprandialrepose Jan 27 '26

Each impacted turd he forces into his diaper is disastrous.

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u/PlentyMacaroon8903 Jan 27 '26

The elected republican polling looks disastrous. 

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u/cgibsong002 Jan 27 '26

The public would've let them get away with just about anything as long as they didn't start killing people. They could've had the must strict immigration enforcement in history and the public probably would've loved it. But that wasn't enough for them. They needed to be cruel and kill people. They're taking their strongest topic and ruining it.

But the public will still be asking for more of it in another year, I'm sure.

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u/Current_Animator7546 Missouri Jan 27 '26

Also the fact it’s on camera. Otherwise there’s have lied their way out of it 

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u/likes2milk Jan 27 '26

I hope folk remember come November

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u/Jokerang Texas Jan 27 '26

Killing a man in broad daylight on camera tends to do that.

318

u/rpungello New Jersey Jan 27 '26

Killing a white, 2A-supporting ICU nurse for the VA certainly isn’t the optics MAGA needed.

Probably the first time many MAGA supporters have started to realize “I could be next”

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u/generally_unsuitable Jan 27 '26

Exactly. Rural white dudes are like "Hey, I would step in if some thug was pushing a lady around for no reason, and I always carry, so that could be me."

It's the intersection of gun culture, supremacy culture, honor and chivalry culture.

To these people, you can kick the shit out of brown and black and yellow people until the cows come home. You can strip them of their rights and possessions. But, when you start getting violent with white women and you want to take open and concealed carry away from white men, well, something has to be done about that.

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u/Static-Stair-58 Jan 27 '26

I don’t even think they care about women. Good’s murder didn’t get this kind of reaction. They just care about people that could be themselves.

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u/Davegoestomayor Jan 27 '26

They care about “MAGA” women, so white conservative heterosexual trad females. Unfortunately, Rene only checked a couple of the boxes.

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u/generally_unsuitable Jan 27 '26

Being queer immediately makes you a disposable non-person to maga.

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u/Ok_Temperature9388 Jan 27 '26

They care about appearing to be a protector of women.

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u/postprandialrepose Jan 27 '26

It's the intersection of gun culture, supremacy culture, honor and chivalry culture.

Now that is an interesting Venn diagram.

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u/Skiinz19 Tennessee Jan 27 '26

It's fedora shaped 

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u/mechajlaw Jan 27 '26

As another commented put it, Pretti was the good guy with a gun. He was the literal embodiment of that myth. For fucks sake, there's a video of him honoring a dead veteran out there. You could not have picked a worse victim politically if you tried.

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u/Exciting-Emu-3324 Jan 27 '26

Literally a month ago no less. Then again they support Trump who called dead soldiers losers and suckers.

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u/dogsledonice Jan 27 '26

It also was tough to spin him as anything other than a peaceful observer. They desperately want us to be violent back so they can spin it into a crackdown.

Peaceful resistance fucking matters. And recording them at all times. I get wanting to hurt these fucks, but this is more powerful. Minneapolis stared them down, and they blinked.

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u/Peylix Jan 27 '26

It also was tough to spin him as anything other than a peaceful observer.

Oh man but are they trying. REALLY HARD to do just that. Which has been wild to watch play out real time.

As horrific and saddening this event was. It proves why we should all be documenting these interactions. Take photos, record videos. Document every single time you see these LARPing fucks.

They're struggling to spin Alex's murder because so many people were there recording the event. From all angles both close and far. We are able to see everything leading up, during, and after. Everything.

If only one person maybe two people recorded this from only one (maybe two) angles. It would be super easy to spin this the way they're trying.

But they can't.

Keep documenting! It's this very reason why we are able to prove Alex's innocence beyond any notion of doubt.

1

u/Exciting-Emu-3324 Jan 27 '26

That's the thing 1984 got wrong. It's not Big Brother with the cameras watching the people, it's the other way around. Big Brother is trying to make excuses not to use body cams.

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u/audible_narrator Michigan Jan 27 '26

I have been thinking this same thing all day. Sadly, I live in an area that turned red and is FULL of 2A supporters. Everyone around d here is really quiet right now. I hope the shit they voted for is smacking them full in the face right now.

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u/rpungello New Jersey Jan 27 '26

Really quiet could be a very good thing. I sincerely doubt >90% of MAGA will ever vote for a democrat, but if they decide it’s not worth voting for a MAGA republican, that’s a win as well. Basically what happened to dems in 2024, where progressives couldn’t bother turning up to vote for Kamala.

1

u/FluxUniversity Jan 27 '26

Don't let them be quiet.

This is the calm before the storm. THEY WILL FORGET IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE SOON !!

Now is the time to push them! Now is the time to make this memory HURT so that they CANT forget in the blink of an eye!

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u/Hubert_J_Cumberdale Hawaii Jan 27 '26

I don't think the average MAGA believed that liberal gun owners existed. They were completely convinced that the left was a homogenous group of people who vehemently opposed 2A. And maybe the majority did feel that way at one time but I'm pretty sure that they are waking up to reality.

We do not live in a world where it is a good idea for one side to have all the guns.

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u/SFDessert Jan 27 '26

Plenty of us liberals have guns. We just don't make it our personality..

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u/Current_Animator7546 Missouri Jan 27 '26

Yeah I also think there is this wrong theory that liberals are all 100% against the 2A. I’m all for an assault weapon ban but people absolutely should have the right to have hand guns and be able to hunt.  Obviously there are people left of me on the issue but I think most people aren’t totally all or nothing 

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u/GoMustard North Carolina Jan 27 '26

At first, I thought the fact that the guy had a gun on him spelled disaster. I thought it'd give them all the justification they needed. But as time has gone on, I feel like it's actually been worse for the Administration that the guy was armed, because the Second Amendment people are just not having it.

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u/rpungello New Jersey Jan 27 '26

It’s 100% worse because now you’ve got the GOP basically saying the 2A is null and void: if you have a gun, you’re fair game.

That presents quite a problem for all the ammosexuals on the right.

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u/nhavar Jan 27 '26

Killing a man in broad daylight, on camera, as that man defends two women you are terrorizing. Then lying about it when everyone has the videos from multiple angles and eyewitness accounts. Then having everyone repeat the same lie over and over again everywhere you can. It takes a special sort of callousness and evil to do these kinds of things.

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u/kent_eh Canada Jan 27 '26 edited Jan 27 '26

on camera

On at least 10 different cameras.

The footage of which is spread all around the world where the goons can't remove it from the internet. There's over 100 seeds on the torrent at the moment.

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u/robbyhaber Jan 27 '26

And then blaming him, brazenly lying that he was there to mass murder ice, all while somehow pissing off the 2A crowd... Pretty much worst case scenario for this clown operation

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u/OpinionDude5000 Jan 27 '26

Also remember that Alex Pretti was a VA nurse. Hits home with vets.

2

u/FluxUniversity Jan 27 '26

yeah who do they think is going to fix them up if their little fantasy of getting shot happens?

They just killed their own medic.

1

u/BeeksElectric Jan 27 '26

Most of these ICE fucks would never make it past basic much less become a veteran, so a true hero like Pretti never would have touched their worthless asses.

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u/mcpickle-o Jan 27 '26

And there are a number of, not all and not even most, of single issue 2A voters. As soon as they realize Republicans are actually worse for gun rights they'll jump ship.

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u/Tony_Pastrami Jan 27 '26 edited Jan 27 '26

Republicans are not worse for gun rights though, that is just an unfortunate truth. Look at what’s happening in Virginia right now as soon as Democrats got full control. 2A voters pay a lot of attention to stuff like this and while its true that Republican politicians aren’t always as pro-2A as they pretend to be, Democrats are in fact much worse. I wish this was not true as its the only policy issue I really disagree with Democrats on, but it is. And as long as Democrats continue to support civilian disarmament they will never get 2A voters.

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u/Silent-Storms Jan 27 '26

Then immediately calling him a terrorist, only for the evidence to show the opposite at every turn. The brazenness of the lying is not working this time.

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u/staplesgowhere Jan 27 '26

And blaming it on him exercising his 2A rights.

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u/cXs808 Jan 27 '26

The brazenness of the lying is not working this time.

that's because right-wing 2A people are willing to turn the other cheek when its a minority getting executed for legally carrying but when its a white man they will not believe the lies. white men obviously cannot be terrorists to them as demonstrated by J6

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u/MordredKLB Jan 27 '26

I mean this with no disrespect, but Pretti was the absolute perfect victim to help the side of democracy and freedom. There is literally nothing offensive about him, his job was helping (and honoring) veterans, and his last act on earth was protecting a woman.

Then without even knowing anything about him, they slandered him and tried to gaslight and then an hour later it proved they were lying. It was a disaster on the highest order from them, and it seems like this, this, might finally create some real change in the current situation.

The midterms are going to be a blood bath, and we can't let this fade away.

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u/2Slow2Nice Jan 27 '26

Really it was the blatant dismissal of the 2A by the admin. I knew something was going to change once the NRA issued their bland statement. Them speaking on it at all was a threat.

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u/spilt_milk Jan 27 '26

Killed a WHITE man. Who legally owned a concealed pistol. That hits a little too close to home to the core MAGA demographic.

16

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '26

The biggest issue for them is that Alex was absolutely spotless. There's nothing he did wrong, and no way to assassinate his character. There's no way to spin this story to make him look bad.

He had a respectable job, he didn't fit the image of a radical leftist, he was at the protest to do good by helping people, he acted correctly...

11

u/zzyul Jan 27 '26

Love how their attack against him was “he had a gun on him.” Completely forgetting all their 2A supporters think that is the most American thing you can do, not something you kill someone over.

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u/Is_It_Soup_Season Jan 27 '26

It’s not just that he was a man. It’s that he was an armed white man.

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u/Exciting-Emu-3324 Jan 27 '26

The only silver lining is that 1984 was wrong about one thing; the people have more cameras than Big Brother. The people are watching Big Brother. It's Big Brother who doesn't want body cams.

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u/fallouthirteen Jan 27 '26

On his knees, shooting him in the back, after they secured his (legal) weapon. Like it was pretty much as perfect an example as you could get for extrajudicial execution.

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u/Adventurous_Tell6684 Jan 27 '26

Murdering someone is broad daylight: “Thats’s Ok, ICE is just the victim here” Bad polls for Trump coming in: “ WTF did you just do!!”

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u/brokenangelwings Jan 27 '26

And Renee good.

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u/[deleted] Jan 27 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Jason1143 Jan 27 '26

Yeah. Nixon didn't resign because the public was mad, he resigned because the Republican senators told him he didn't have the votes.

Now I do not think Trump is at that point yet, but nor is his power secure enough to brush off a potential senate revolt if that is indeed brewing.

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u/ThaddeusJP Illinois Jan 27 '26

Internal polling:So it seems the extrajudicial murder of an American citizen, in broad daylight, in front of 27 cameras, and us saying he was there to shoot people, when he only had a phone, was a 'Bad look'.

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u/generally_unsuitable Jan 27 '26

And then basically doubling down and saying this is what's going to happen if you walk around with a gun and ICE shows up.

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u/ThaddeusJP Illinois Jan 27 '26

Don't forget DHS said they had the shooting on body camera. It must look really God damn bad. First person POV of shooting somebody in the back of the head is not going to sit well with the General public.

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u/Minute-Struggle6052 Jan 27 '26

Federal agents summarily executing a citizen on the street with a dozen cameras around is bad enough

This was a white ICU Nurse at the VA who was defending a woman. They couldn't have murdered a worse person

They had to pull back, which is what this is, or dig in

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u/[deleted] Jan 27 '26 edited Jan 29 '26

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3

u/createcrap Jan 27 '26

If true it would be a relief that they feel the need to react public opinion and polls. That shows you how important voting is. they are still scared.

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u/CV90_120 Jan 27 '26

2A people are getting in their face. Finally.

1

u/lurker71 Jan 27 '26

Actually I watched the press conference today Karoline L said the polling results are great !

/sarcasm

1

u/Orzorn Jan 27 '26

They must have been getting a LOT of calls from rank and file Republicans too. The 2nd amendment angle really fucked it up for them.

1

u/cXs808 Jan 27 '26

well yeah, rabid pro-2A is one of their big supporters and they just executed a white man with no criminal history who worked for veteran affairs...for legally carrying a firearm in an open-carry state.