Joe Biden Decries Shooting Deaths By Federal Agents: "We Are Not A Nation That Guns Down Our Citizens In The Street"

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Deadline

January 27, 2026 8:42am


Joe Biden is the latest former president to condemn the shooting of Alex Pretti by federal agents, as he said that residents of Minnesota “have suffered enough at the hands of this administration.”

Biden’s statement, following ones from Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, also mentioned the shooting death of Renee Good earlier this month, and called for “full, fair and transparent investigations.”

Pretti was shot by one or more federal agents on Saturday in Minneapolis, leading to further nationwide outrage over the tactics used by the Trump administration in its immigration crackdown.

Biden’s statement, posted on X, read, “What has unfolded in Minneapolis this past month betrays our most basic values as Americans. We are not a nation that guns down our citizens in the street. We are not a nation that allows our citizens to be brutalized for exercising their constitutional rights. We are not a nation that tramples the 4th Amendment and tolerates our neighbors being terrorized. The people of Minnesota have stood strong — helping community members in unimaginable circumstances, speaking out against injustice when they see it, and holding our government accountable to the people. Minnesotans have reminded us all what it is to be American, and they have suffered enough at the hands of this Administration. Violence and terror have no place in the United States of America, especially when it’s our own government targeting American citizens.

Read more: https://deadline.com/2026/01/joe-biden-decries-alex-pretti-renee-good-shooting-deaths-by-federal-agents-we-are-not-a-nation-that-guns-down-our-citizens-in-the-street-1236698472/

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Full headline: Joe Biden Decries Alex Pretti, Renee Good Shooting Deaths By Federal Agents: “We Are Not A Nation That Guns Down Our Citizens In The Street”

Link to tweet

Joe Biden
@JoeBiden
What has unfolded in Minneapolis this past month betrays our most basic values as Americans. We are not a nation that guns down our citizens in the street. We are not a nation that allows our citizens to be brutalized for exercising their constitutional rights. We are not a nation that tramples the 4th Amendment and tolerates our neighbors being terrorized. The people of Minnesota have stood strong — helping community members in unimaginable circumstances, speaking out against injustice when they see it, and holding our government accountable to the people. Minnesotans have reminded us all what it is to be American, and they have suffered enough at the hands of this Administration. Violence and terror have no place in the United States of America, especially when it’s our own government targeting American citizens.

No single person can destroy what America stands for and believes in, not even a President, if we — all of America — stand up and speak out. We know who we are. It's time to show the world. More importantly, it's time to show ourselves.

Now, justice requires full, fair, and transparent investigations into the deaths of the two Americans who lost their lives in the city they called home. Jill and I are sending strength to the families and communities who love Alex Pretti and Renee Good as we all mourn their senseless deaths.
10:52 AM · Jan 27, 2026

[Wicked Blue]

1. Bravo, President Biden!

An excellent summing-up of the nightmare created by Traitor and his minions.

[LearnedHand]

2. Well yes, but we clearly ARE that nation

I appreciate the thought though.

[biophile]

3. My first thought as well. Yes, apparently we are that nation

[maxsolomon]

4. Counterpoint:

We are a nation that guns down our citizens in the street. And we have always been one.

We ASPIRE to be a nation that doesn't gun down our citizens in the street, sure...

[RockRaven]

5. We very much ARE a nation of that sort.

Denying reality gets us nowhere.

Over a thousand Americans are killed (almost exclusively with guns) by police/sheriffs/feds (aka the government) annually.

There are only a handful of days each year where the government doesn't gun down someone in the street.

[wolfie001]

8. When we brought "freedom" back to Europe back in 1944-45.....

....the south was still having lynchings and god knows what else was going on in all 4 corners of America. That's why the fat orange imbecile wants to stifle and whitewash history.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. Biden calls on "all of America" to stand up and speak out the way Minnesotans have

Link to tweet

[wolfie001]

7. Thank you, President Joe!

Decent fellow and Great President! Especially considering what he was up against!

[SergeStorms]

9. Apparently, we are.

Under the fascistic regime of Donald J. Trump, all constitutional protections are null and void.
Unless Trump draws back, I fear civil war is upon us.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

10. President Biden just released the following statement on the terrible events that have taken place in Minnesota:

Link to tweet

[ananda]

11. We shouldn't be a nation that guns down citizens...

but sadly we most definitely are.

[littlemissmartypants]

12. We are now, apparently. But we can change. America is an ideal.

President Biden has said that, too.

[0rganism]

13. Well-stated, admirable sentiment, factually incorrect

This nation has been gunning down citizens in the streets for centuries. Has Biden forgotten the history of the labor movement pre-WW2? The response to the "bonus marchers" post-WW1? Kent State? Never mind the slave patrols of the 19th century and lynchings of the 20th.

This nation has a storied past of deep cruelty including shootings in the streets. Aspirationally, we may be trying to change, but we've been backsliding hard for the last decade.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

14. Aw you're no fun - Kristi Noem

[Jack Valentino]

15. I miss President Joe Biden more than ever !!! ---- imagine having a President

who acts presidential, respects the Constitution, doesn't want to be a dictator,
and actually loves American and Americans---- but doesn't merely mouth the words---

Actions speak much louder than words, and they are doing so still.

[NNadir]

16. I love President Biden but he's wrong.

We are now a nation that guns down its citizens in the streets.

The only failure of the Biden Presidency for all its accomplishments, is that the Justice Department failed to imprison the Orange Pedophile. We're paying a huge price for the failure of that overlooked task.

[BumRushDaShow]

17. The "overlooked" issue is that 20 years ago, Shrub nominated John Roberts to be on the SCOTUS

and then IMMEDIATELY elevated him, a junior/associate Justice, to Chief Justice instead of as a replacement for Sandra Day O'Connor when she announced her retirement (where he nominated Samuel Alito to fill that slot instead), and thus he would replace William Rehnquist when he died (which all happened around the same time).

And before 45's ambitions were a twinkle in anyone's eye, John Roberts was chipping away at stuff, and eventually HE gutted Sect. 4 & 5 of the Voting Rights Act, barely kept the ACA in place (minus the "individual mandate" ), overturned Roe v. Wade, declared that the President has "immunity" (and thus THWARTED ANY PROSECUTION OF 45), AND is now in the process of dismantling the REST of the core of the Voting Rights Act that is left (Sect. 2).

Everyone looks at the circus act in the White House but the last bastion of power IS the SCOTUS and John Roberts.

[NNadir]

18. I'm fully aware of the fact that the Supreme "Court" is stacked with political hacks...

...with no respect for the Constitution and the law.

Nevertheless, the nomination by Obama of Merrick Garland and the unconscionable acts of hypocrisy displayed by Mitch McConnell in putting a rapist and a religious bigot on the court in lieu of him does not excuse the fact that as Attorney General, Garland failed to protect the country from one of the most dangerous criminals in its history.

This Court has done everything in its power to tear the Constitution to pieces. Yes, it's very clear that Roberts is the worst Chief Justice since Roger Taney. Taney of course tore the country apart and led directly to the most violent episode in American history, the American Civil War.

Roberts seems hell bent on repeating the feat.

Garland - who I defended here for a time - did nothing to check this disaster.

[BumRushDaShow]

19. The unhealthy obsession about Garland while ignoring Roberts

and making an assumption that someone at the SCOTUS would allow a prosecution of 45, just boggles the mind. The only way to get him (which did get him) was for state crimes, and those are in their final appeals before he loses.

How you know is the vigor of his assaults on the state courts in NY, more recently in CO, where he has been trying to "bust Tina Peters free" from her state charges, and prison cell, AND right now as I type, GA, where the FBI has just executed a search warrant in the Fulton County Election office... GA being the state where he was not only charged, but where he had his infamous mug shot, and where the SOS there has been battling 45 since the 2020 election.

[NNadir]

20. Nevertheless, the felon should have been arrested on federal charges...

...of leading an insurrection against the United States.

It was on TV after all.

All these things you mention about State charges, which I credit, are a function of the failure to enforce and uphold a Federal law against treason.

The felon should have been in prison.

The milquetoast response to the treason charge has allowed the rise of a fascist state using the power of the American government against its citizens as opposed to for its citizens.

[BumRushDaShow]

21. "Nevertheless, the felon should have been arrested on federal charges"

......of leading an insurrection against the United States.

He WAS arrested on "federal charges" for "insurrection". Did you miss all that? It was posted on DU.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143107851











The court case was assigned to judge TANYA CHUTKAN in August 2023, where she scheduled pre-trial activities scheduled for March 2024. Remember her?



Trump’s federal trial in election subversion case set for March 2024

And John Roberts SWOOPED IN to accept 45's appeal -

Supreme Court takes up Trump immunity appeal

with a STAY to hear the appeal IN APRIL 2024, blowing past the original trial start -

US Supreme Court Will Hear Trump’s Immunity Appeal in April, Delaying Election Subversion Trial

And then after their hearing, the SCOTUS waited from April 22, 2024 until July 1st, 2024 the last day of their session, to give judge Tanya Chutkan some "immunity homework" -

US Supreme Court leaves Judge Tanya Chutkan to parse Trump immunity

And she tried to get started with it but then ran into the just before an election cutoff, just as Roberts had planned.

It's time to drop the goddamn conspiracy shit and get with the reality of what went on. There's so much damn misinformation that has been spread on DU since this time where people obviously ignored all the threads that were following the 4 cases (2 federal and 2 state).

[NNadir]

23. OK. I forgot, but I certainly didn't forget the case of Ex Parte Merryman (17 F. Cas. 144 (C.C.D. Md. 1861) (No. 9487)

...in which Abraham Lincoln, ignoring the courts ruling, declared in his message to Congress.

In his July 4, 1861 message to Congress, Lincoln said:

Now it is insisted that Congress, and not the Executive, is vested with this power. But the Constitution itself, is silent as to which, or who, is to exercise the power; and as the provision was plainly made for a dangerous emergency, it cannot be believed the framers of the instrument intended, that in every case, the danger should run its course, until Congress could be called together; the very assembling of which might be prevented, as was intended in this case, by the rebellion.[30]

In the same message to Congress, Lincoln asked, "are all the laws, but one, to go unexecuted, and the government itself go to pieces, lest that one be violated?"

Of course, nobody should expect any President, from Joe Biden on down, to be Abraham Lincoln, but the point still stands: Adherence to a (stacked) Supreme Court order has destroyed the country in which all laws are going unexecuted, including laws against murder.

Ex parte Merryman

Of course, John Roberts is trying to match Roger Taney, and may succeed at doing what Taney failed to do, destroy the United States, but through the prism of my extreme anger, I forgot this act of Treason and contempt for the Constitution exhibited by the awful Roberts.

Thanks for the clarification.

[BumRushDaShow]

24. Just like what is due to happen next month with the E. Jean Carroll sexual assault case appeal

that Roberts has on his desk for the SCOTUS conference review on whether to hear the case or not - if he (and the rest of the court) does ANYTHING other than swatting that away, then it continues to prove the interference that he has been actively running for 45.

The delay in ruling on both the "Birthright Citizenship" and "Tariffs" cases, are other examples in his bag of interference tricks.

When the last crop of GOP SCOTUS picks were undergoing confirmation hearings, there were all kinds of bullshit promises (lies) about the relevance of "stare decisis" and upholding past precedence. And then they went on to ignore that and upended Roe, parts of the VRA (the last core part about to be torpedoed by Roberts this session), and will probably go after Obergefell next, as well as the 1964 Civil Rights Act.