You know the timeline is glitching when Fox & Friends starts sounding like the voice of reason.
On Monday, Fox News host Griff Jenkins decided to do something wild.
He actually asked a tough question.
The victim of this sudden act of journalism was Deputy AG Todd Blanche.
And let me tell you, watching Blanche squirm was the highlight of my morning.
The Narrative Crumbles
The topic at hand was the tragic shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
The Department of Homeland Security has been shouting from the rooftops that Pretti was a “domestic terrorist.”
But apparently, even the folks inside the house are getting nauseous from the spin.
Jenkins brought up reporting from his colleague, Bill Melugin.
Melugin posted on X that officials are getting “increasingly uneasy and frustrated” with the messaging.
Jenkins read a quote straight from Melugin’s reporting.
“There is extreme internal frustration with DHS officials going on television and putting out statements to describe Alex Pretti as a domestic terrorist who was there to inflict maximum damage on federal agents or conduct a massacre, even after multiple videos emerged, to show that these claims appeared to be inaccurate.”
Ouch.
When your own people are leaking that you are making things up, you might have a problem.
The “Blame Minneapolis” Defense
Jenkins then asked the million-dollar question.
“Todd, I ask you based on the DOJ’s purview, do the actions of Alex Pretti amount to domestic terrorism?”
Blanche did what any well-trained MAGA acolyte does when cornered by facts.
He deflected.
“It’s an investigation, so I’m not going to prejudge what his actions were or not,” Blanche said.
Then he immediately tried to pivot to the favorite right-wing punching bag.
“There is one city where we see this outrage, one city, and that’s Minneapolis,” he claimed.
nice try, Todd.
But Jenkins wasn’t having it.
The Legal Smackdown
The Fox host interrupted with a brutal reality check.
“With all due respect, sir, my question is more pointed,” Jenkins said.
He then proceeded to give the Deputy AG a law lesson.
“Do you believe your colleagues may have gone farther? You are an attorney … 18 U.S. Code 2331. It has a legal definition of domestic terrorism, and it doesn’t appear to most of the country that have watched the available video… but it does not appear to have met that definition of domestic terrorism.”
Jenkins even wondered aloud “if there was such a thing” as body cam video that would justify the claim.
He asked how the DOJ views colleagues who “may have gone too far.”
Blanche’s response was gaslighting at its finest.
“Look, I don’t think anybody thinks that they were comparing what happened on Saturday to the legal definition of domestic terrorism.”
really?
Nobody thinks that?
Kristi Noem Would Like a Word
There is just one tiny problem with Blanche’s defense.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem explicitly defined it that way.
At a Saturday news conference, Noem didn’t mince words.
“When you perpetuate violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and perpetuate violence, that is the definition of domestic terrorism,” Noem said.
So the Secretary uses the dictionary definition, but the Deputy AG says nobody meant the legal definition.
Make it make sense.
Backpedaling to Reality
Realizing he was walking into a trap of his own making, Blanche finally retreated.
“What we saw was a very violent altercation. And I am not going to prejudge the facts,” he said.
He admitted there is video “we haven’t seen yet” and muttered about witnesses.
Then he finally landed on a word that actually fits.
“So I’m not describing it is as anything except for a tragedy.”
It took a Fox News host citing federal code to get there.
But at least we finally arrived.
