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WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (KUNA) -- As demonstrations against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continue Friday, President Donald Trump Trump doubled down his rhetoric against the protestors, calling them "insurrectionists and agitators."
Commenting on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz likening of the situation in Minneapolis to Fort Sumter, Trump told reporters at the White House that the protesters are "paid troublemakers."
He cited as evidence what he called "professionally made" and "gorgeous" signs.
"These are people that are handed signs and we know pretty much - we're getting very close to it - but we know pretty much who's funding this stuff," Trump said without naming the possible funders.
He also called Alex Pretti an "agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist," marking an increase in the intensity of his rhetoric toward the ICU nurse fatally shot by federal agents after the president recently said he wanted to "de-escalate a little bit" in Minnesota.
In a post on Truth Social today, Trump said that Pretti's "stock has gone way down with the just released video of him screaming and spitting in the face of a very calm and under control ICE Officer, and then crazily kicking in a new and very expensive government vehicle, so hard and violent, in fact, that the taillight broke off in pieces.'
NBC News previously reported on the video, shared online this week, that appeared to show Pretti in an altercation with agents just days before he was fatally shot.
In the video taken on Jan. 13, Pretti is seen yelling at federal immigration agents and kicking the back of a vehicle used by agents, breaking a taillight. It is not clear what happened before the interaction.
Last night, former CNN anchor Don Lemon was arrested by federal authorities in connection with a protest at a Minnesota church service earlier this month, according to his lawyer and Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The Committee to Protect Journalists- a nonprofit that promotes press freedom worldwide, condemned Lemon's arrest.
"The arrest of journalist Don Lemon in connection with his reporting on a protest in Minnesota should alarm all Americans," Katherine Jacobsen, who works on the organization's US efforts, said in a statement.
"Instead of prioritizing accountability in the killings of two American citizens, the Trump administration is devoting its resources to arresting journalists," she added.
In related development, the Department of Justice has opened a federal civil rights probe into the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
"We're looking at everything that would shed light on what happened that day and in the days and weeks leading up to what happened," Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a Friday news conference.
Blanche added that he does not know where Pretti's phone is or the gun that he had on him before his death.
A student walkout in New York City and an anti-ICE protest in Minneapolis are planned to take place today. (end)
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