This Is What Resistance Looks Like: Rep. Khanna Goes After Epstein’s Island Visitors, City Council Confronted Over…

              

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This Is What Resistance Looks Like: Rep. Khanna Goes After Epstein’s Island Visitors, City Council Confronted Over ICE, GOP Rep. Lawler Destroyed At Town Hall, and Pelosi Sounds The Alarm

“Haul them all in”: Trump’s evil meets fierce resistance across America—and it’s only just beginning

Scott Dworkin Feb 6

I’m glad you’re here. Today’s news brief shows that Democrats are demanding Epstein accountability while Trump buries the files. People are standing up against ICE in their communities. A GOP Rep. got destroyed at his town hall. And a champion delivered a blistering defense of press freedom. Separately, Trump’s depravity hit a new low.

We show you Trump’s chaos and the resistance rising to stop it. We also run pro-democracy campaigns generating billions of impressions monthly on social media, and drove half a million contacts to Congress last year—with one million more planned by November.

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TRUMP IS SICK AND BEYOND HELP

Before we jump into some good news here, I have something I need to get off my chest regarding a recent interview Trump did with NBC News. He finally admitted that Renee Good and Alex Pretti shouldn’t have been killed. But the truly sick part is that Trump doesn’t care his abuses led to their deaths—he’s sorry he got bad PR for it.

When asked about the killings, Trump whined like a toddler over how he looked in the news. This unhinged lunatic cared about one thing—his image—not the Americans his agents killed.

But even after he admitted that the killings were unjustified, Trump went on to smear Renee Good and Alex Pretti, calling them “no angels.” It’s the same disgusting tactic Trump has used his entire life—attack the victims, while protecting the killers. Trump clearly has no soul, no conscience, and absolutely no capacity to have true human feelings. Just needed to get all that out.

Moving on.

KHANNA: HAUL THEM ALL IN

Dem Rep. Ro Khanna is refusing to let the Trump regime bury the Epstein files. Just this week Khanna made a demand that should have everyone named in the files terrified: “I am calling for Congress to haul in every person who emailed Epstein about visiting his island.” Khanna added: “I will not rest until those who committed these crimes are held accountable.”

While the Trump regime is too busy trying to bury millions of files, Khanna refuses to back down. He wants them all subpoenaed, prosecuted, and sent to prison—exactly where they belong.

LAWLER IS ONE OF THE WORST

GOP MIKE LAWLER (R-NY) TIME TO RETIRE! 

GOP REP. MIKE LAWLER FACES RE-E;ECTION

GOP Rep. Mike Lawler thought hosting another town hall would be a good idea. He was wrong. Hundreds packed the community college to protest and sound off about Trump’s ICE killings, and how Lawler refused to put a stop to any of it.

At one point the crowd chanted: “What’s your line?”—asking when he’d finally stand up to Trump. Lawler squirmed instead of giving a good response. A member of the crowd yelled “Answer the f**king question!” Lawler had deputies drag him out, responding smugly: “Hey, bro, you can leave now. Goodbye, goodbye.”

The first person thrown out by Lawler was a Veteran. So was the second. The crowd loudly chanted “shame!” and “let him stay!” but Lawler ignored them.

Throughout the night, Lawler pathetically defended the Trump regime and ICE killings. He got booed so loudly that he could barely finish a coherent thought—not that he had any. People were rightfully angry, calling him a liar to his face.

This coward threw out Veterans instead of answering their questions. In November, voters will throw Lawler out for good.

ARIZONA RESISTANCE AGAINST ICE

Protesters packed a city council meeting in Surprise, Arizona this week, in what turned into a five-hour showdown over the DHS purchase of a warehouse that will be converted into an ICE detention center.

One participant made a great point when speaking to the council members: “I just cannot stand for this. We do not warehouse people in our country. This isn’t the United States I grew up in.”

Mayor Kevin Sartor said they didn’t even know about the purchase by DHS, but residents aren’t buying it. Another attendee said: “We know you weren’t given a seat at the table when this project was planned, but you have the power to pull up a chair right now.”

PELOSI SOUNDS ALARM ON PRESS FREEDOM

Just this week, The Washington Post announced massive layoffs, the latest sign of the ongoing crisis facing the free press. Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi made clear what’s at stake: “Today, we saw painful layoffs at The Washington Post, part of a broader, reprehensible pattern in which corporate decisions are hollowing out newsrooms across the country.”

Pelosi issued a stark warning: “Make no mistake, the First Amendment is under siege here at home. Each fact is challenged, truth is distorted and the press is treated by those in power as an enemy.”

“When corporate interests gut local, national, and international journalism, communities lose watchdogs, truth loses megaphones, and democracy loses guardians,” Pelosi added.

Pelosi warned that democracy dies in darkness. We’re the ones keeping the lights on.

We’ve led the fight against Trump for a decade. Last year our campaigns generated billions of impressions against MAGA propaganda, and also drove half a million contacts to Congress—all on top of our daily news briefs.

Bezos chose his billions over democracy. We choose independence. We choose you.

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Onward!

Scott

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Help us out—like, restack, and share this now. Spread the stories corporate media won’t tell.

I have two questions for you today:

What do you think about WaPo laying off one-third of its staff?

Thoughts on Trump’s comments about Renee Good and Alex Pretti?

Thanks for your support! Another way to help us out is by gifting subscriptions to friends and family! You can get yours by clicking the link 

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MASS GOP BOOBS: "R VOTERS: IT'S TIME TO PAY ATTENTION!

             

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WIDESPREAD REPORTS AND VIDEOS EXISTED OF ICE GESTAPO ABUSE, INJURIES, 

AND KILLINGS....IS THIS WHAT REPUBLICANS STAND FOR?

DEATHS IN ICE GESTAPO CUSTODY ESCALATE AND NO ONE IS ASKING QUESTIONS? 

ICE GESTAPO USE OF BANNED CHOKEHOLDS REPORTED...WHO ASKS QUESTIONS? 

IGNORING THESE ISSUES DEFINES THE MORAL DECAY OF THE REPUBLICAN 

PARTY!  IS THAT WHAT YOU EMBRACE? 

WE DID NOT NEED TO WAIT FOR STATISTICAL REPORTS TO UNDERSTAND 

TRUMP'S ECONOMIC DESTRUCTION OF NOT ONLY THE ECONOMY FOR THE

DESTRUCTION OF THE AMERICA DOLLAR, THE EXPLOSION OF CONSUMER 

COSTS,THE DESTRUCTION OF HEALTHCARE & FOOD PROGRAMS, 

DESTROYING RESEARCH & EDUCATION....BANNINNG FOREIGN STUDENTS 

FROM STUDYING  IN THE US...H1B VISA costs will force the BEST & THE 

BRIGHTEST to spend $$$ and go elsewhere....

Is it too complex for MASS GOP to grasp or explain?

ENERGY PRICES are rising...REPUBLICANS ignored TRUMP'S LNG SALES that screwed  AMERICAN CONSUMERS......

When do REPUBLICANS report FACTS?

‘A tragedy’: Mass. Republicans react to fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis

Adam Reilly

January 26, 2026

Flowers and candles make up a memorial to Alex Pretti on January 25, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Pretti, an ICU nurse at a VA medical center, died on January 24 after being shot multiple times during a brief altercation with border patrol agents in the Eat Street district of Minneapolis.

Scott Olson  Getty Images North America

Massachusetts Republicans are weighing in on the fatal shooting of nurse Alex Pretti by a U.S. Border Patrol officer in Minneapolis over the weekend, two-and-a-half weeks after another Minnesotan, Renee Good, was shot and killed by a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent nearby.

Several of the Republicans reached by GBH News said they wanted to see an investigation of Pretti’s death, though Mass. GOP chair Amy Carnevale was an exception. There was also near unanimity that a recent phone call between President Donald Trump and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz augured well for a possible deescalation of tensions between federal agents and Minnesota residents opposed to their presence.

In a statement to GBH News, Mike Minogue, an Army veteran and former medical device company CEO who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor, said he and his wife are praying for Pretti and his family and mourning his death, which Minogue termed a “tragedy.”

“We are a nation of law and order, and violence of any kind must not become normalized,” Minogue said. “Our law enforcement officials should not be exposed to risk for enforcing immigration laws and removing violent criminal illegal immigrants in order to make our communities safer. But it must be done while honoring our core American values, including the right to assemble peacefully.

“This incident deserves a thorough and transparent investigation, and I am encouraged to see the president and governor of Minnesota talking with the goal of transparency, deescalating the situation, and finding a solution that keeps law enforcement and citizens safe,” Minogue added.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Kennealy — a former private equity executive who served as former Gov. Charlie Baker’s secretary of administration and finance — also referenced the recent conversation between Trump and Walz, which the president described in unexpectedly positive terms after publicly feuding for months with Walz.

“As President Trump noted while recapping a productive conversation with Governor Walz, the priority in Minnesota and across the country is to get dangerous criminals off our streets and out of our state and nation,” Kennealy said in a statement. “That is easier to accomplish when federal, state, and local law enforcement cooperate with one another. It’s impossible to do that when Maura Healey and Michelle Wu stoke tensions for political points and have effectively turned Massachusetts into a sanctuary state. That ends when I’m governor.

“Any time there is an incident where law enforcement uses lethal force, there should be a full, transparent investigation with findings made public,” Kennealy added. “That should certainly happen in this instance.”

Healey has rejected the characterization of Massachusetts as a sanctuary state.

A third Republican gubernatorial candidate, ex-Marine and venture capitalist Brian Shortsleeve, struck a similar note to Minogue in a statement to GBH News.

“What happened on Saturday was a tragedy that demands a full and independent investigation,” Shortsleeve said. “I’m pleased that Gov. Walz and President Trump had a productive call, are working to cool tensions on both sides, and may have a path forward for reducing ICE’s presence in Minnesota neighborhoods while restoring much needed cooperation between local and federal officials on deporting known criminals.

“That is the right approach that protects due process and allows law enforcement to stay focused on deporting the worst of the worst who almost everyone agrees should be out of the country,” Shortsleeve added.

Lawyer and cryptocurrency advocate John Deaton, a former Marine who is seeking the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Democrat Ed Markey, said his initial response to Pretti’s death was “disbelief.” He decried what he described as a rush to judgment by both Republicans and Democrats.

“Unfortunately, we live in this world where there’s these two extreme sides — and immediately, if you consider yourself pro-ICE, you have to find a way to confirm your bias and make this a justified killing,” Deaton said. “And of course, if you are against ICE, then you’re rushing to confirm your bias that this is a homicide. And we saw that on both sides, whether it be elected leaders in Minnesota, whether it be [Homeland security secretary] Kristi Noem.

“These two extremes — to me, a man lost his life, and I think that our humanity deserves to sit back and let’s collect the facts before we [pass judgement],” Deaton said.

Deaton also cited the recent conversation between Walz and Trump, calling it “a ray of hopefully a silver lining in this dark cloud.”

Amy Carnevale, the chair of the Mass. GOP, highlighted the party’s support for law enforcement and did not call for an investigation into Pretti’s death in a statement to GBH News, though she did call it “tragic.”

“The tragic death in Minneapolis is a stark reminder that our law enforcement officers are being forced into life-or-death situations while doing their jobs and protecting the public,” Carnevale said. “The MassGOP stands firmly with law enforcement and renews the call for state and local officials to cooperate fully with federal authorities on detainer requests, so immigration enforcement can take place out of our neighborhoods and off our streets.”

WGBH

 

             

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Minnesota Rapper Violently Detained by ICE: ‘I Assumed I Was Going to Die’

Twin Cities artist Nur-D talks was tackled to the ground while peacefully protesting the death of Alex Pretti, but remains dedicated: “We will not stop fighting”

January 30, 2026

Local artist Nur-D, a.k.a Matthew Allen, moments before being pinned to the ground by ICE agents.Brandon Bell/Getty Images

When Matthew Allen woke up on Saturday, Jan. 24, he was looking forward to running errands. Allen, better known in the Twin Cities as the musician and rapper Nur-D, had spent the previous day with thousands of Minnesotans marching on the streets in -15º weather to protest the ongoing violent federal occupation of the state. Now the weekend had arrived, and Allen woke up excited to spend his day shopping for window blinds and dog food with his wife. “I was planning on having a regular day,” he says.

But soon after getting up, Allen did what millions of Americans did that Saturday morning: He picked up his phone and found himself staring at footage of federal immigration officers shooting and killing VA nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Allen and his wife changed up their plans, thinking they’d stop by a protest for a little bit before going on with their day.

What happened, instead, is that Allen was chased, tackled, sprayed with an acrid substance, and violently detained by federal immigration officers, who, he claims, told him he was being arrested for assaulting a federal officer, a charge he says was baseless. 

“My name is Matthew James Obadiah Allen,” he screamed while being pinned to the ground, “I have done nothing at all….I’m a United States citizen.”  

Given what had happened earlier that day to Pretti, Allen says he believed, in that moment, that those would be his final words. 

“I assumed I was going to die,” Allen tells Rolling Stone, “so I was going to make it as clear and concise as I possibly could.”

“My name is Matthew James Obadiah Allen,” he screamed while being pinned to the ground, “I have done nothing at all….I’m a United States citizen.”  

Given what had happened earlier that day to Pretti, Allen says he believed, in that moment, that those would be his final words. 

“I assumed I was going to die,” Allen tells Rolling Stone, “so I was going to make it as clear and concise as I possibly could.”

“I assumed I was going to die,” Allen tells Rolling Stone, “so I was going to make it as clear and concise as I possibly could.”

“You wanna kill me on the street?” he shouted as the masked men stood over him. “You’re gonna have to fucking kill me. I have done nothing wrong.”

Five days later, Allen thinks back to what was going through his head at that moment. “I’m not going to let you slave-catch me,” he says. “I’m not going to help you, in any way, make this into something it’s not. This is grabbing someone in the street who has done nothing wrong and killing them, and if that’s what we’re doing — I’ve already seen you do it today — that’s why any of us are even here right now. Most of us would rather be doing what we love to do on a Saturday morning.”

As Nur-D, Allen has made a name for himself in the Twin Cities scene, performing at the local Soundset hip-hop festival and collaborating with the Minnesota Orchestra in recent years. Much of his music, especially on his latest album, Chunkadelic, is about the joy he feels being from his hometown: “Turn to my neighbors, say where you from?” the Rosemount, Minnesota, native sings on “Franklin Ave,” before launching into the prideful chorus: “This my city, this my vibe, this my town.” 

He is also a veteran of local community organizing and protest; the last time he spoke to Rolling Stone was May 2020, in the midst of the uprisings for George Floyd. “So much of what 2020 was, was ‘If this becomes something that is OK for the state to do, they will do it,’” Allen says today. “And the first people who are hit are the Black and brown people of our country.”

Speaking with Rolling Stone, Allen is ambivalent about the attention he’s received for his story of being violently detained last weekend. He understands that what happened to him pales in comparison to the violent disappearings and deaths of both American citizens and foreign-born people at the hands of the federal government across the country. Allen is not the first musician detained by immigration officials: Marcos Flores, the bassist in Denver-based band Summer of Peril, has been in a Colorado ICE detention facility for more than a month.

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“What happened to me probably won’t even be a footnote in what’s going on in our state and across the country,” says Allen. “But there are so many people who have been in the exact situation I was in, and they are just gone. So because I get to talk right now, I’m going to talk.”

Federal agents detained Nur-D at the Jan. 24 protest.Richard Tsong-Taatarii/The Minnesota Star Tribune/Getty Images

After being arrested, Allen was placed in the back of a white pick-up truck (“worst-case scenario” as a Black man, he says) and then driven some distance to an unknown outdoor location in Minneapolis. At that point, Allen says, he was thrown out of the car, at which point he ignored a command to take his clothes off. “I refused to move my body,” he says. Instead, he kept repeating his full name, reiterating that he was a citizen, and asked to speak to a lawyer.

“I had asked, specifically, ‘If I comply with everything I am told to do, will I be shot?’ And the answer was silence,” he says. “So I didn’t move.”

After some time — he doesn’t know how long — Allen, who had been demanding medical attention after being sprayed with a chemical agent in the face, was placed in a stretcher, transferred to an ambulance, and brought to a hospital. It was not until he entered the emergency room at the Hennepin County Medical Center that he realized he might be safe. He is incredibly grateful for both the EMT professional named Andrew who calmed him down in the ambulance, as well as the nurses who provided care in the hospital. By evening, Allen was back at home with his wife. 

Since then, Allen has been walking around with a knee brace and a limp. He’s banged up, and he’s had a hard time sleeping lately, knowing that ICE officials now have his name and could find him at any point. But above all, he feels lucky and fortunate. He’s since retained a team of attorneys, including Rodney King’s civil rights lawyer John Burris, to pursue legal action against the government for their violation of his civil liberties.  

He’s grateful for his Twin Cities neighbors and doesn’t regret, for a second, having shown up to protest in the wake of Pretti’s death that Saturday morning. “The thing that pays my bills is that my community pays to see me do what I love the most,” he says. “How could I not be out here? It’s them — they’re the ones who spend five, seven, 10 dollars on my art. So if that’s something they’re gonna do, I will step up for them.”

What he wants those outside Minnesota to understand about the ongoing federal occupation (the government is referring to it as Operation Metro Surge, with a stated purpose of apprehending violent immigrants), is that the conflict between federal agents and the people of Minnesota has not been a fight between two equal sides. 

“This is not the people you disagree with versus the people you agree with,” he says. “This is a heavily armed people willing to murder versus snowballs and signs….We’re human beings saying ‘Stop killing us.’ It’s crazy that that’s a political statement, and I would very much like it if people would stop making it one.”

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Speaking to Rolling Stone the day before a planned nationwide strike modeled after Minnesota’s recent statewide strike (and endorsed by everyone from Ariana Grande to Pedro Pascal), Allen can’t help but feel as though his home state has become a microcosm for the nation. 

“Minnesota is like a mini-America,” he says. “We have a massively diverse group of people. We have a history both beautiful and horrific. And just like there are people in this country who say ‘We don’t want people different than us on our streets,’ there are thousands and thousands more who still stand in the street and say, ‘Those people are dumb.’ We love the differences that we all bring. We love our brothers and sisters and nonbinary people and two-spirit people, all the human beings that live amongst us. And we will not stop fighting.”

ROLLING STONE