JD Vance blasted a Daily Mail reporter after being pressed on whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents involved in the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti should face criminal prosecution, and whether the vice president would apologize for previously claiming Pretti had arrived at the ICE protest with ill intent.
"If it is determined that they [ICE] did [violate Pretti's civil rights], do you think those immigration agents, who shot at Alex Pretti, and killed him, do you think they should face criminal prosecution?" the reporter asked.
"I think we should follow the law. We should follow the law. There should be investigations," Vance replied.
"But should they face criminal prosecution?" the reporter pressed.
Vance blasted the reporter for trying to get him to jump the gun on the investigation.
"Well, you're engaging in a hypothetical," Vance said. "I'm not going to pre-judge these guys. I think everybody deserves the presumption of innocence in the American system of justice. Thats how its gonna work. They're going to investigate, if they find out that he violated the law, of course, you should face consequences for violating the law. But I'm not going to engage in conjecture about the different permutations of how this or that officer might have violated the law. Let's do the investigation."
"Let's figure out did these officers have a reasonable fear of Alex Pretti, given what happened. Did they engage in lawful conduct or unlawful conduct? Let's let the investigation determine those things," he added.
The reporter then abruptly changed subjects.
"Have you apologized? Do you plan to apologize to the family of Alex Pretti?" the reporter asked.
“For what?”
"For, you know, labeling him an assassin with ill intent."
"Well again, I just described to you what I said about Alex Pretti, which is that he's a guy who showed up with ill intent to an ICE protest," Vance said.
"If it's determined that his civil rights were violated by this FBI investigation, will you apologize?"
"So if this hypothetical leads to that hypothetical, leads to another hypothetical, will I do a thing?"
"I mean its a real case that's open."
Vance again refused to be cornered, calmly arguing that it is inappropriate to get ahead of a full investigation, one currently being conducted by both the state of Minnesota and the federal government. The vice president said prejudging the case would be unfair to the ICE agents involved. More broadly, the episode reflects a familiar media pattern of attempting to shape a verdict and impose it on the public before any official conclusion can be reached.
"And again, like I said, we're going to let the investigation determine, we're going to let the actual law come to the surface and figure out what happened," Vance said. "And then If something is determined, that the guy who shot Alex Pretti did something bad, then a lot of consequences are going to flow from that. We’ll let that happen. I don’t think it’s smart to prejudge the investigation.”
"I don't think its fair to those ICE officers," he added. "I think we should let the investigation actually figure out what happened, what were those guys thinking, was it a reasonable fear, or not, when they engaged in that shooting."
🚨 LMFAO! JD Vance CLAPS BACK at reporter who keeps pressing him about Alex Pretti
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) February 4, 2026
"If Pretti's rights were violated, will you apologize?!"
VANCE: "So, if this hypothetical leads to that hypothetical leads to another hypothetical, will I do a thing?" 😭
“I think we should let… pic.twitter.com/nDWOA3PdzH