As political pressure mounts for the Trump administration following the fatal ICE shooting of U.S. citizen Alex Pretti, the second such killing in Minnesota, many voices on the internet are pointing out that the chaos erupting during President Donald Trump’s second term was already predicted by his former 2024 election opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris.
“She warned us…,” wrote journalist Don Lemon in a caption of a video from Harris’ major primetime speech on Oct. 29, 2024, at the Ellipse, just outside the White House.
During the nearly 30-minute remarks, the then-presidential candidate cautioned American voters that, if re-elected, Trump would use the presidency to abuse his powers and turn against U.S. citizens as part of his claims to crack down on illegal immigration and violent criminals.
“Trump intends to use the United States military against American citizens who simply disagree with him, people he calls, ‘the enemy from within.’ America, this is not a candidate for president who is thinking about how to make your life better. This is someone who is unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance, and out for unchecked power,” said Harris.
Ironically, following the fatal ICE shooting of another U.S. citizen, Renee Good, earlier this month, President Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy the U.S. military to the St. Paul-Minneapolis area amid unrest. The threat was condemned by critics who said it was uncalled for and a threat to the First Amendment rights of citizens peacefully protesting the federal government’s actions.
In her speech at the Ellipse, Kamala Harris said of Trump: “[He] has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other. That is who he is. But America, I am here…to say that is not who we are.”
The former vice president’s condemnations of Trump echoed what many have said about the 47th president of the United States in recent days: that he is squarely focused on silencing dissenters and his perceived political enemies through intimidation and the use of force. Harris noted that, in America, debate and disagreement are foundational to what it means to be an American.
“The fact that someone disagrees with us does not make them the enemy within…they are family, neighbors, classmates, co-workers. They are fellow Americans, and as Americans, we rise and fall together,” said Harris.
She added, “America, for too long, we have been consumed with too much division, chaos, and mutual distrust, and it can be easy then to forget a simple truth: It doesn’t have to be this way.”
The former vice president has since released a public statement reacting to the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital.
“As so many have now seen on video, his final act before he was killed by federal agents was doing everything in his power to protect his community. Alex and tens of thousands of Minnesotans have boldly defended their neighbors against the murderous occupation of an American city by the federal government,” said the former vice president and potential 2028 presidential candidate.
“I am enraged and heartbroken for Alex, his family, Minneapolis, and America.”
