Tim Miller: Federal Agents Shot an American And These Ghouls Defended It

Summary

Bulwark Takes Podcast Summary

Episode: "Tim Miller: Federal Agents Shot an American And These Ghouls Defended It"

Date: January 29, 2026

Host: The Bulwark (Tim Miller, with guests Piers Morgan, Brandon, and Jonathan Fahey)

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Episode Overview

This explosive episode of Bulwark Takes centers on the controversial killing of Alex Preddy, an American citizen and nurse, by federal agents in Minneapolis. Tim Miller recounts his heated appearance on Piers Morgan’s show to challenge defenders of the shooting—including a former ICE director and a pro-police pundit—over issues of law enforcement overreach, government accountability, and the meaning of masculinity. The episode unpacks the public and political fallout, Donald Trump’s shifting rhetoric, and broader implications for civil rights, policing, and partisan trust in America.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Killing of Alex Preddy: What Happened?

• Summary:
  Miller describes the viral incident where Alex Preddy intervenes to help a woman protester thrown to the ground by ICE agents in Minneapolis (hundreds of miles from the border). Preddy, lawfully carrying a weapon, is subdued, disarmed, and then shot multiple times.
• Key Questions Raised:
  • Why were Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis?
  • Was deadly force remotely justified?
  • Are Americans being gaslit about what the video evidence plainly shows?

2. Political and Public Reaction

• Piers Morgan’s Observation [03:01]:
  • "If you try and tell people that what they've just seen with their own eyes is not true, they're not going to buy it. Trust in you is going to erode and your polling numbers are going to get slayed...[it] will cost you at the ballot box."
• Tim Miller argues Trump’s polling is suffering, particularly among libertarians, Hispanic voters, and young men who previously believed in his "don't tread on me" image.
• Tim Miller [04:43]:
  • "The vast majority of Americans do not want and do not support a government that murders its own citizens in the street."

3. ICE, CBP, and Law Enforcement Defenders

• Pro-Police Position—Brandon [06:27]:
  • He insists that Preddy’s actions were reckless given he was armed, claiming agents’ use of force was legally justified due to “perceived threat,” regardless of video context.
  • Brandon repeatedly appeals to law enforcement protocol, stating: "What happens, things get twisted up… They yell, gun, gun, gun. ... That's going to be justification under the law."
• Tim’s Retort [07:17]:
  • Miller ridicules the logic that simply holding a gun justifies being shot, particularly in a context where Preddy’s gun was already confiscated before he was killed.

4. Where Should Border Agents Be? Jurisdiction Outrage

• Miller is outraged at the presence of border enforcement in a city hundreds of miles from the border:
  • [04:43] "Minneapolis is famously 300 miles from a border..."
  • [07:17] "Why are Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis nowhere near the border, pushing American citizen women to the grill?"

5. Use of Force—Was It Excessive?

• Tim Miller pushes the ICE acting director, Jonathan Fahey, to admit that shooting someone 10 times after they've been subdued is unprecedented and indefensible.
• Fahey’s Response [12:29]:
  • Deflects on specifics but falls back on training protocol: "You fire until the threat is no longer a threat, and then you reevaluate."

6. Masculinity, Emasculation, and Deflection

• Brandon repeatedly tries to frame Miller and Morgan as “emasculated” for criticizing law enforcement—
• Tim Miller’s Rebuttal [16:32, 18:43]:
  • "Apparently we’re emasculated because we’re not bootlickers for wanting to kill buddy. ... The masculine guy was the guy standing up for the woman… I wish we had more men like Alex Preddy, but unfortunately, he's dead."

7. Doubts, Gaslighting, and Broken Trust

• The discussion touches on the wider right-wing tactic of gaslighting evidence, notably in the contradictory explanations about Ilhan Omar’s assault.
• Morgan: "...a complete eradication of basic humanity... there ought to be parameters between left and right. Well, we can just agree when something like that happens, we all say this is terrible and shouldn’t be happening." [13:01]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Tim Miller on Bodycam Evidence [04:43]:
  • "You’ll probably be able to find a couple of shills to come on and defend that on this show, but I think the vast majority of Americans say no, we do not want murderous mass thugs anonymously killing our fellow Americans."
• Brandon on Justification [06:27]:
  • "Perception of the Border Patrol agent... is going to be justification."
• Piers Morgan on Trust [03:01]:
  • "...if you try and tell people that what they've just seen with their own eyes is not true, they're not going to buy it."
• Tim Miller on Masculinity [18:43]:
  • "The masculine guy was the guy standing up for the woman... in exchange for his bravery, a bunch of [agents] shot him dead and unloaded six bullets into his dead body while he was laying on the ground."
• Piers Morgan on Humanity [13:01]:
  • "...a complete eradication of basic humanity… We can just agree when something like that happens, we all say this is terrible and shouldn’t be happening."

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• 00:59–02:59: Tim Miller’s intro, describing appearance on Piers Morgan and setup for the episode
• 03:01–04:43: Morgan and Miller discuss the Trump administration’s gaslighting and political fallout
• 06:27–08:39: Brandon and Miller’s heated arguments about law enforcement protocol and justification for deadly force
• 09:00–12:29: Brandon and Fahey defend shooting as procedural; Miller presses for accountability
• 13:01–14:49: Wider media gaslighting, Ilhan Omar incident, and erosion of basic humanity in partisan divides
• 16:05–18:43: Spirited argument over what constitutes masculinity, heroism, and real harm

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Conclusion

This episode is a raw, impassioned debate over what justice, accountability, and basic decency require from law enforcement and from us as citizens. Miller emerges as a fierce critic of both government aggression and the ideological cover that enables it, challenging both protocol and culture—all while exposing the risks of accepting excuses for indefensible state violence.

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Recommended for listeners interested in:

• Police violence and accountability
• Media narratives and political trust
• The continuing culture war over masculinity and dissent

Transcript

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[Tim Miller]

Hey everybody, it's Tim Miller from the Bulwark. I went back into the Piers Morgan Lions den, so gird your loins for that one. Buckle up. It gets intense. There's some yelling. There is some yelling. Among those I was on with was a fellow who calls himself the Officer and a former acting ICE director. One of whom was basically pro the state murder, was just really happy with the fact that a fellow citizen got murdered by anonymous agents of the state. The other one was trying to, you know, figure he needed to. He needs to see more angles. You know, the 39 angles we have weren't sufficient for him. And so we had some disagreements. They didn't like none too much my perspective on this and tried to, you know, use the gay card. Like a lot of, oh, you're so emasculated. Emasculated. So we end up having a nice talk about what masculinity is and about who represents masculinity. The nurse who put himself in harm's way to protect a woman that had been pushed down by bullies? Or the six or seven masked anonymous agents who tackled that nurse and still managed to get scared that he might beat them in a one on seven fight and assassinated him because they're such little scaredy boys. So let's just say we have a little disagreement on that. We also talked about Elon Omar getting attacked and whether that was real or not. You can count me on the side of real, of course, I do this as a little personal therapy. I also do it for you. And I do it because maybe, just maybe, there are one or two souls out there watching Piers Morgan who are thinking, you know what? I think the gay and the flannel might have had the point there. So we'll see. Appreciate you guys. Stick around for the highlights. Bye.

[Piers Morgan]

Tim Miller. It seems to me it's been a very significant 48 hours, actually, for Donald Trump, for his administration, for the wider public, and for this issue of trust and being able to believe what we see with our own eyes. Because if you listen to what these administration officials were saying in the immediate aftermath of this killing, then this guy, Alex Preddy, was about to launch a massacre of law enforcement officers when we could all see from the various clips that were coming out that that simply wasn't true. He was defending a woman protester who'd been thrown on the floor. He was then thrown on the floor himself. Yes, he had a weapon on him, but at no stage did he brandish that weapon or represent any threat to the eight ICE officers that engulfed him. And in fact, they took away his gun and then they killed him. So given that we could all see that, I think what's happened here, which has been really pretty unprecedented and quite fascinating to watch, is that Donald Trump has realized this has crossed a line, a line many people may not have thought Donald Trump was aware of or cared about. And that line being if you try and tell people that what they've just seen with their own eyes is not true, they're not going to buy it. Trust in you is going to erode and your polling numbers are going to get slayed. And ultimately it will cost you at the ballot box. What's your reading of it?

[Tim Miller]

Well, I hope you're right, Piers. I hope that Donald Trump changes course. I think we've seen some very minor evidence of that. Replacing Greg Bevino with Tom Homan. For me, I would have preferred that all of the ICE and CBP agents be removed from Minneapolis immediately and then taken off the streets and brought back to D.C. or to the border where they're supposed to be. Minneapolis is famously 300 miles from a border, and then they could reassess what a program would look like, where they actually went after the worst of the worst, rather than menacing American citizens and menacing people who are here legally. And I do agree with you that the American people overwhelmingly do not want and do not support a government that murders its own citizens in the street. That Unloads a clip and shoots them 10 times, fires six bullets into their dead body on the ground, and then lies about them and smears them after they're dead. I think that the vast majority of Americans don't want that. You'll probably be able to find a couple of shills to come on and defend that on this show, but I think the vast majority of Americans say no, we do not want murderous mass thugs anonymously killing our fellow Americans. And so I do think that that is showing up in the polls. I think you're seeing Donald Trump's numbers erode massively, particularly among Hispanics, but also among young men, the libertarian types, the folks that really believed the don't tread on me flag, the folks that really believed in the First Amendment, which protects free speech, which protects taping people in your community, if you want to, as well as the second Amendment, which protects your ability to carry a weapon. So the young men that flocked to Trump, I think thinking that he was gonna be a free speech president, are now seeing the truth, and I do think it's hurting him with them as well.

[Brandon]

I would never confront or get in a physical altercation with any law enforcement with a gun on me. You learn it in CCW class and as a person with common sense, because what happens, things get twisted up. You have the gun get exposed. They yell, gun, gun, gun. He's reaching for his waistband. They think he has a gun. And all of that is going to be justification under the law, because the perception of the Border Patrol agent that believed that he was armed and dangerous at the time that he fired the shots is going to be justification.

[Piers Morgan]

He took his gun away.

[Brandon]

For anybody on this panel, just like. Just like they took his gun away.

[Piers Morgan]

We literally see them take his gun off him and then they kill him.

[Brandon]

But that doesn't mean that the Border Patrol agent who shot him saw that the gun being removed. Pierce, that is what you want to call it.

[Tim Miller]

Brandon, Brandon, Brandon, please. We've listened to this enough. For starters, your whole Batman, your whole spin is crazy. This idea that you started your thing by saying this was justified because the Border Patrol agent came and pushed a woman to the ground. Why are Border Patrol agents. Excuse me, sir, let me continue. Why are Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis nowhere near the border, pushing American citizen women to the grill? Brandon. Brandon, shut up.

[Brandon]

Understand how it works. They have jurisdiction to enforce immigration law within the boundaries of the city. What the heck are you talking about?

[Tim Miller]

Was she. And was she an immigrant? Was she an illegal immigrant? They push an American Citizen to the ground. We have rights. Brandon, she. The entire Minneapolis police force. Shut up. Brian. The Brandon whatever your name is, the entire Minneapolis police force.

[Brandon]

Come make me, sir.

[Tim Miller]

Shot zero bullets you all year last year. Bullets.

[Brandon]

You want.

[Tim Miller]

You want a problem with me that works for us. They don't get to shoot American citizens. They can stop you and shoot six women into our dead bodies. They don't get to push down women. They represent us. We pay them. They need to use restraint and de escalate. Okay? They are here there to serve and protect us, not to shoot.

[Piers Morgan]

Guys, okay, timeout, Timeout, guys.

[Tim Miller]

Executing their rights and they got murdered. And you're on here to beg for ghouls. All right.

[Piers Morgan]

Okay, hang on.

[Brandon]

He's dead.

[Piers Morgan]

Time out, please. Time out, please. I want to bring in Jonathan Fay because you're a former acting ICE director. But first I want to play a clip from Donald Trump about the gun part of this.

[Tim Miller]

That being said, you know, he can't have guns. You can't walk in with guns.

[Piers Morgan]

What about the Second Amendment?

[Tim Miller]

Listen, he can't walk in with guns. You can't do that. But it's a very unfortunate incident.

[Jonathan Fahey]

Do you agree with the assessment from.

[Tim Miller]

Some of your own officials that Alex Freddie is a domestic terrorist or an assassin?

[Brandon]

Well, I haven't heard that, but certainly.

[Tim Miller]

He shouldn't have been carrying a gun. But I don't like that he had a gun. I don't like that he had two fully loaded magazines. That's a lot of bad stuff. And despite that, I say that's a very unfortunate.

[Piers Morgan]

Now, the thing is, Jonathan Fahey, you know, I've repeatedly heard Donald Trump say he's the biggest Second amendment guy in America. Right. How does that square with what he's saying there about this protester who was. Who was there had a lawful right to have a firearm and the ammunition, he's saying he shouldn't have taken it. But that's a repudiation of his constitutional rights, isn't it?

[Jonathan Fahey]

I don't think so at all. And I don't view it the same way in that, yeah, you have a right to carry a firearm, but that also comes with responsibilities. I know Tim's rolling his eyes there, but the thing is, what the issue is here is this person injected himself in the situation, and I'm not going to come to a conclusion because I don't know what happened, but he injected himself into a law enforcement situation and he was armed and he went there. He didn't go there to protest. My understanding, these people Weren't holding up signs saying open borders, mass amnesty. He was injecting himself into a situation to interfere with ICE doing their jobs. The legal issue, and you don't just come out, say it's murder if someone dies.

[Piers Morgan]

The.

[Jonathan Fahey]

The issue is, did this officer have a reasonable belief that his life or the lives or others were in danger of being lost or being seriously injured? And one thing. Hang on a second, Tim. It's important from the officer's perspective and what's reasonable. And they are in this high pressure situation and the fact that the gun was removed, that's a factor, but it's not the only factor. Because you don't know in these situations, does he have another gun or something else to make someone safe. So the question is, did any of.

[Tim Miller]

Your agents ever fire 10 bullets into an American citizen? Did that ever happen? When you're acting director, did they ever fire 10 bullets into an American citizen?

[Jonathan Fahey]

Tim, Tim, Tim, if you could.

[Tim Miller]

Did that ever happen?

[Jonathan Fahey]

A little bit.

[Tim Miller]

Did you ever do that?

[Jonathan Fahey]

Look, if you're. Are you performing or can I just ask.

[Tim Miller]

No, I'm asking. It's a fair question. Did that ever happen? You were the acting director. Did any of your agents ever kill Americans?

[Jonathan Fahey]

Are we here to talk about this or is it just me?

[Piers Morgan]

To me, I agree.

[Tim Miller]

What is this?

[Piers Morgan]

Let's not talk over each other. So. So I think the question Tim is asking is reasonable.

[Jonathan Fahey]

I know, I know the masculated.

[Brandon]

Are.

[Tim Miller]

Are.

[Jonathan Fahey]

Are up in arms, Tim, but come on.

[Tim Miller]

All right, but you're saying the problem is.

[Piers Morgan]

Please don't talk over each other, guys.

[Tim Miller]

You just called me to mail.

[Piers Morgan]

Please don't talk over each other, guys. No one can hear you when you talk over each other.

[Jonathan Fahey]

Jonathan, you want to perform?

[Piers Morgan]

Please let me. Please let me conduct this panel. Thank you. The point Tim was making to you, Jonathan, was in all your time as ICE director, acting ICE director, did you ever have an incident like this where an ICE official put 10 bullets, or two of them did put 10 bullets into an American citizen.

[Jonathan Fahey]

I can tell you I know a lot about police shootings. I was a federal prosecutor 17 years. I've defended police and police students and the way they are trained. And Brandon will confirm this, you fire until the threat is no longer a threat, and then you reevaluate. So the fact that there are 10 bullets, you don't just say, you know, we've heard Joe Biden, remember during the. You shoot in the leg or whatever. You don't do that. And that's not the way they're trained. So if the issue is the number of bullets, then the question is maybe they should be trained differently, but they are trained to eliminate the threat.

[Piers Morgan]

Now, Brandon, what has concerned me about this is that from Donald Trump, and I think you have intimated this too, there's an immediate position by people on the maga, right, that because you don't like Ilian Omar, that she somehow staged this. It's not real. It didn't happen the way people think it did. This guy was a plant and so on. And again, it comes back to what I sense is a complete eradication of basic humanity. There ought to be parameters between left and right. Well, we can just agree when something like that happens, we all say this is terrible and shouldn't be happening.

[Brandon]

Pierce, there is no jump to conclusion. I don't care about none of these people. They don't pay my bills. I don't have to say anything about Ilhan Omar. I don't really care about her. But the bottom line. And Donald Trump don't pay my bills either. But the bottom line is that I'm looking at this impartially. I don't know what anybody said. I saw the video and it does not look consistent with someone trying to assault another person. Which means I have never in my life seen a person get up, spray something out of syringe at someone's chest. It happened to be nothing inert. And then she comes after him. You didn't see her back away from him. You didn't see her shy away from him. You didn't see any of the. Brandon, you would say the guy didn't even resist. You would.

[Piers Morgan]

Brandon. Brandon. Brandon. You would say the complete opposite if that was a Republican Congress.

[Brandon]

That's not true. Brandon.

[Tim Miller]

Is the guy going to jail just for fun?

[Brandon]

That's not true.

[Tim Miller]

Is the guy going to jail just for fun? Is that part of the show? I just want to hear a little bit more about this theory. No, no, please, just one second. Just a question. I want to hear more about this theory.

[Brandon]

That guy, I'm giving you the elements.

[Tim Miller]

Is he going to jail for show? He's going to jail.

[Brandon]

I'm giving you. I'm giving you elements of why this looks strange to me.

[Tim Miller]

So why do you think he's going to jail? Is he like an antifa. Is this part of like some. Is this the lizard people?

[Brandon]

Listen, was there anything in the syringe? It was inert. There was nothing poisonous. There was no pepper spray. There was nothing in the syringe to spray it.

[Tim Miller]

I'M asking you why you think he's going to jail for this?

[Brandon]

He sprays her with the syringe in the chest. She goes after him. If you're afraid of somebody spraying you with a chemical agent, you're not going to pursue them. He resisted. Not one bit. He goes to the ground. She says, well, you don't believe it, do you, Brandon?

[Piers Morgan]

You don't believe it.

[Brandon]

I don't think that this was. I think this was staged. I don't know if it was true or not.

[Tim Miller]

Can I ask a question? Can I ask a question? What if Alex Preddy had sprayed a liquid onto this ICE officer? Would you have. Would you have said that there was no reported murder?

[Brandon]

Aggravated. It'd be aggravated assault.

[Tim Miller]

And you would have supported executing him?

[Brandon]

No.

[Tim Miller]

Just like you would have supported. That wouldn't have been justification. That wouldn't have been justification for the ICE agent to react. But merely holding a phone. Merely holding a phone is justification to react.

[Brandon]

Who said that it's justified for somebody to spray something? We're talking about a specific incident where a man had a gun. They had a reason to believe that he was.

[Tim Miller]

He had a gun in his holster. He was holding a phone. He was holding. Can we talk about masculinity for second, Pierce? I'd like to talk about masculinity.

[Brandon]

Gun on him.

[Tim Miller]

I. I would have a gun on him. I would, too.

[Brandon]

Did he not have a gun on. Have you ever. Have you ever done law enforcement? Any one of you emasculated men on a. On a thing. Have you ever done law enforcement?

[Tim Miller]

You know, Brandon, I can feel this one for you. I'm happy to. I'm happy to take this. Thank you for that.

[Piers Morgan]

Why are we. Why are they emasculated?

[Brandon]

Have you ever had to use.

[Tim Miller]

Can I talk. Apparently, peers were emasculated because we're not bootlickers for wanting to kill buddy. Apparently.

[Brandon]

Apparently.

[Tim Miller]

Apparently we're emasculated because we're not in support of six guys jumping. Six guys jumping on and murdering a nurse.

[Brandon]

There's a use of force.

[Tim Miller]

You're a real man, Brandon. You're a real man.

[Piers Morgan]

Hang on. Hang on.

[Brandon]

Please.

[Jonathan Fahey]

Hang on.

[Brandon]

Hang on.

[Piers Morgan]

We can't hear you when you all talk. When you all talk at once, nobody hears any of you. Tim?

[Tim Miller]

Yeah, So I have a couple of things. On this question of. On this question of whether I've been an officer, this appeal to authority. I haven't. But you know who has? The Chief of police of Minneapolis? No, no. The chief of police. Excuse Me. Brandon. Let me finish talking. The chief of police of Minneapolis gave a press conference.

[Brandon]

Shot Pretty.

[Piers Morgan]

Brandon, let him talk.

[Tim Miller]

Well, actually, that's a good point. We actually don't know the man who shot Pretty because the federal government is hiding him. So we don't know who killed their own citizens yet. Isn't he? But we know that the chief of police of Minneapolis gave a press conference after the shooting of Preddy where he talked about how the judgment was irresponsible and how his police officers, every single police officer in the entire city of Minneapolis, shot zero bullets last year. They encountered real criminals. Excuse me? Let me finish. They encountered real criminals. Not soy boy protesters like Alec Freddie. They encountered actual criminals. They encountered murderers. Not even use the force scenarios. Assault. Yeah, they did. They encountered those people. They were armed. They disarmed a thousand. According to the chief of police in Minneapolis, they disarmed a thousand people last year without firing a single bullet. These morons fired 10 bullets. And this whole thing about this definition of. This definition of masculinity, okay, it's like, really, the tough guys are the six mascot. Pushing down a woman, pushing down a protester, and then getting scared. Oh, they saw a gun, and I got so scared, and I've got to.

[Brandon]

Shoot my blood 10 times.

[Tim Miller]

Those are the masculine men. No, I'm sorry. The masculine guy was the guy standing up for the woman, doing what men should do, standing up for the woman that got pushed down. And then in exchange for his bravery, a bunch of shot him dead and unloaded six bullets into his dead body while he was laying on the ground. That's what happened. Those are the emasculated body. And I wish we had more men like Alex Preddy, but unfortunately, he's dead.