{"id":21924,"date":"2026-03-18T17:25:41","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T17:25:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2026\/03\/18\/pressed-at-dhs-hearing-markwayne-mullin-walks-back-deranged-comment-about-alex-pretti\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T17:25:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T17:25:41","slug":"pressed-at-dhs-hearing-markwayne-mullin-walks-back-deranged-comment-about-alex-pretti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2026\/03\/18\/pressed-at-dhs-hearing-markwayne-mullin-walks-back-deranged-comment-about-alex-pretti\/","title":{"rendered":"Pressed At DHS Hearing, Markwayne Mullin Walks Back \u2018Deranged\u2019 Comment About Alex Pretti"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div style=\"position:relative\" data-narration-container=\"true\">\n<p>Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said he regretted calling Alex Pretti a \u201cderanged individual\u201d after he was fatally shot by a Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis in January.<\/p>\n<p>Mullin made the statement during a Wednesday Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on his nomination to lead the Department of Homeland Security. If confirmed, the Oklahoma Republican would inherit an agency facing scrutiny over its handling of the fatal shootings of both Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n<p>Leading up to her firing, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem faced scrutiny for statements about the motives of Pretti and Good before the investigation concluded, accusing both of committing an act of domestic terrorism.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Marykwayne Mullin says he regrets calling Alex Pretti a \u201cderanged individual that came into cause max damage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI went out there too fast. I was responding immediately without the facts. That\u2019s my fault. That won\u2019t happen as secretary.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/kDbXXgrHDc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/kDbXXgrHDc<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jennie Taer (@JennieSTaer) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JennieSTaer\/status\/2034273306736566624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">March 18, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) asked Mullin if he intends to do the same.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter DHS officers shot and killed two American citizens this past January, you joined top administration officials in publicly blaming and disparaging the victims,\u201d Peters said. \u201cFollowing the killing of Renee Good, Secretary Noem called her a domestic terrorist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou, sir, you called Alex Pretti \u2018a deranged individual that came in to cause max damage.\u2019 Could we expect those kinds of quick responses if you are confirmed as secretary?\u201d Peters asked.<\/p>\n<p>Mullin responded bluntly that he wouldn\u2019t do the same and expressed remorse for his previous comment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo, senator, I have a deep amount of respect for you. We\u2019ve had our differences, but I do respect you. I think I\u2019ve said this privately when we had a conversation. Those words probably should have been retracted,\u201d Mullin said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI shouldn\u2019t have said that. And as secretary, I wouldn\u2019t. The investigation is ongoing \u2026 I went out there too fast. I was responding immediately without the facts. That\u2019s my fault. That won\u2019t happen as secretary,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Peters then asked Mullin to apologize to Pretti\u2019s family, which he said he would \u201cabsolutely\u201d do if the investigation proves him wrong.<\/p>\n<p>Following the shootings, President Donald Trump sent border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis to take over operations. In doing so, Trump replaced Noem-ally Gregory Bovino, a top Border Patrol official, who has since announced his retirement from the agency.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/pressed-at-dhs-hearing-markwayne-mullin-walks-back-deranged-comment-about-alex-pretti\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said he regretted calling Alex Pretti a \u201cderanged individual\u201d after he was fatally shot by a Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis in January. Mullin made the statement during a Wednesday Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on his nomination to lead the Department of Homeland Security. If confirmed, the Oklahoma Republican would [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-current-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}