Officials Shift on Guns at Protests After Pretty Death (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: And when you see those lunatics all over the streets, it's damn nice to have arms. You can't walk in with guns, you just can't. Listen, you can't walk in with guns, you can't do that.

[00:00:13] Speaker 2: President Trump's stance on guns at protests has changed over the years. We uncovered several instances of Trump administration officials who have changed their language on this issue in the wake of Alex Pretty's death. After the 2020 unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Trump declined to condemn Kyle Rittenhouse, who was armed with a rifle and later fatally shot two people during the protest there.

[00:00:32] Speaker 1: They very violently attacked him. He probably would have been killed. He should not have had to suffer through a trial for that.

[00:00:39] Speaker 2: He was going to be dead. Rittenhouse was acquitted of charges against him and said he brought a rifle as a precaution and had acted in self-defense. Trump also defended Mark and Patricia McCloskey after they pointed guns at racial justice protesters outside their home in St. Louis.

[00:00:54] Speaker 1: They were going to be beat up badly if they were lucky. And these people were standing there, never used it, and they were legal, the weapons.

[00:01:03] Speaker 2: Kristi Noem also once wrote approvingly about hundreds of armed bikers who showed up at a Black Lives Matter protest in South Dakota with, quote, their Second Amendment rights on full display. The message was clear, no riots or looting tonight. But Noem sounds very different talking about Pretty.

[00:01:21] Speaker 3: I don't know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign.

[00:01:28] Speaker 2: Kash Patel also forcefully defended Kyle Rittenhouse, but had this to say about Pretty. You cannot bring a firearm loaded with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It's that simple. That even caught the attention of Mark McCloskey. He posted on X, quote, say goodbye to the Second Amendment. Once again, the government using crisis to take away your rights. When CNN reached out to the administration for comment, a DHS spokesperson accused Pretty of, quote, obstructing law enforcement and said that, quote, Americans have a right to show up to a protest with a gun, but you must follow the law. A White House official also told CNN this is an entirely different situation. Rittenhouse said no interaction with federal law enforcement or ongoing law enforcement operations. And White House Press Secretary Caroline Levin put out a statement saying, quote, while Americans have a constitutional right to bear arms, Americans do not have a constitutional right to impede lawful immigration enforcement operations.