In an era of smartphones, there are times people don't have to believe federal officials or journalists or anyone else.
They can watch what happened themselves.
A half-dozen citizen videos that chronicled the shooting ofAlex Prettion a freezing street in Minneapolis Jan. 24 may well turn out to be a pivot point for PresidentDonald Trump, the deployment of thousands of ICE and Border Patrol agents on the streets of U.S. cities, the debate over the constitutional right to protest and more.
Shot from various angles, some shaky and just seconds long, they can be stitched together to depict an unfolding of events at direct odds with the account by Homeland Security SecretaryKristi Noemand other top administration officials.
"Your eyes don't lie," Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat, said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Vigils held for Alex Pretti, killed in Border Patrol related shooting
The contrast between what Noem claimed and what millions of Americans watched means the past weekend could turn out to be a crucial passage that pressured the president to adjust course − or pay a political price − and emboldened congressional critics to confront him.
Already the repercussions are threatening a fragile agreement for the Senate to approve a bipartisan spending package that happens to include $10 billion for ICE. "I can't vote for a bill that includes ICE funding under these circumstances," Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine, said on CBS' "Face the Nation," though that could mean a partialgovernment shutdownon Friday.
Even Rep. James Comer, a staunch Republican from Kentucky who chairs the House Oversight Committee, suggested on Fox's "Sunday Morning Futures" that Trump remove ICE agents from Minneapolis and send them somewhere else, if "there's a chance of losing more innocent lives or whatever." Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana called in a statement for a "full joint federal and state investigation" into the shooting.
And there were protests on the streets not only of Minneapolis but also in cities from New York to Chicago to Los Angeles.
In November, there could be consequences as well for GOP congressional candidates in swing districts. The midterm elections often serve as a referendum on the White House, and they set the stage for the final two years of a president's term.
More:Will another deadly shooting bring another government shutdown?
A confrontation, then 10 gunshots
Here's what Noem said at a news conference hours after the shooting.
"An individual approachedUS Border Patrol Officerswith a 9mm semi-automatic handgun," she told reporters. "The officers attempted to disarm this individual but the armed suspect reacted violently." She said it "looks like a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage and kill law enforcement."
But that's not what it looked like to many others.
The videos show Pretti, 37, an ICU nurse for the VA, brandishing not a gun but a cell phone, taping the scene of protests and trying to help up a woman who had fallen to the ground after being sprayed with a chemical agent. He went face-to-face with a Border Patrol agent, was forced to his knees and then flat on the ground, surrounded by armed men in tactical gear.
It was only then that they seemed to discover he had a gun − which turned out to be registered andlegal to carry. Frame-by-frame scrutiny indicates that the weapon had been confiscated by an agent seconds before the first of 10 shots were fired at Pretti, killing him before the first doctor arrived on the scene.
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More:Gun rights groups slam feds' comments after Minneapolis shooting
American are inclined to endorse Trump's tightening of the U.S. border with Mexico and his promise to deport violent criminals who are in the country illegally. From the start of his political career, immigration has been one of the animating issues for his supporters and a source of strength in assessments of his presidency.
But even before the shooting of Pretti, nearly two-thirds of Americans disapproved of the way ICE was handling its job. Six in 10 told a New York Times/Siena University survey that the agency had "gone too far" in its tactics −including 70% of the independent voters who typically determine elections.
More:Majority disapproves of ICE in poll released after Minneapolis shooting
Earlier this month in Minneapolis, Renee Nicole Good, 37, had been shot and killed by an ICE agent who fired into her car, another incident caught on a smartphone. Other videos that have gone viral show a five-year-old boy in a winter hat with bunny ears being detained by an agent. Another depicted an elderly man in little more than his underwear being pulled out of his home and placed in a government SUV.
Later, the man, a Hmong refugee and naturalized U.S. citizen, was returned to his home after agents determined he wasn't the person they had been seeking.
Echoes of George Floyd
There are echoes of George Floyd here.
It was six years and a few miles away that Floyd, a Black man, was murdered by a White police officer during an arrest on accusations that Floyd had used a counterfeit bill in a local shop. The officer knelt on Floyd's neck and back for more than nine minutes, asphyxiating him.
Then, too, the cellphone video ignited protests nationwide.
That was in May 2020, when the episode may have commanded special attention because millions of Americans were stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pretti's death came as millions of Americans were trapped at home by the weekend'sfierce snowstorm.
The firestorm that has followed carries some risks for Democrats, just as the efforts in the wake of Floyd's death to institute DEI policies − for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion − created grievances that Trump has tapped.
The slogan then to "Defund the Police" was used by Republicans to depict Democrats as soft on law-and-order, even those who didn't endorse the idea. Now, some progressives are making calls to "Abolish ICE."
But at the moment, Trump faces the bigger political peril.
Let's go to the video.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Trump and a turning point on immigration with a death, caught on video