U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany who is running for governor, said he had not seen the video of the shooting at a Monday press conference, more than 48 hours after the shooting occurred and as video of the shooting has circulated on social media and in major news outlets. Tiffany at his campaign launch in September 2025. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Wisconsin politicians are responding to the shooting of Alex Pretti, the ICU nurse from Green Bay who was killed Saturday by U.S. Border Patrol agents. U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the frontrunner in the Republican gubernatorial primary, said Monday he hadn’t seen widely circulated video of the shooting.

Pretti’s death prompted protests across the country including in Green Bay, his  hometown. Gov. Tony Evers  joined a lawsuit challenging the presence of federal immigration agents in the Twin Cities. Other Wisconsin politicians issued a variety of statements reacting to the shooting.

U.S. Rep. Tony Wied, whose district includes Green Bay, called the shooting in Minneapolis a “tragedy” in a statement Monday. Pretti was a graduate of Green Bay’s Preble High School. 

“While we await a thorough investigation, I encourage my colleagues to tone down their rhetoric, which has put both law enforcement officers and the public at risk,” Wied said. “We can disagree on the issue but we must do so in a constructive and peaceful manner. Assaulting and impeding federal law enforcement is illegal and a recipe for disaster. As a country, we need to lower the temperature and allow law enforcement to do their jobs.” 

Video of the moments leading up to the shooting, which shows Pretti being pinned down by a group of immigration agents before being shot in the back, does not support Trump administration claims that he tried to assault or impede the agents.

Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is running for governor, said he had not seen the video of the shooting at a Monday press conference, more than 48 hours after the shooting occurred and as video of the shooting has circulated on social media and in major news outlets. Tiffany also called for “full investigation” of the shooting by the state and federal government.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Tiffany also said people have the right to carry legally registered concealed guns but should consider potential consequences. Pretti was a licensed gun owner, who according to a CNN analysis of bystander video had his gun removed from him before officers shot him. 

“The problem is not the Second Amendment. If I saw a quote accurately this morning… it sounds like (Pretti’s) father had some discussion with him recently, saying, ‘Be careful when you go to something like this, make sure that you don’t get caught up in the chaos,” he said. “And unfortunately, he did.” 

Democrats, including some who are running for governor, criticized Tiffany. 

Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Devin Remiker called Tiffany’s claim not to have seen the video “a pathetic excuse from a pathetic man.” 

“Tom Tiffany is, at best, a clueless coward and at worst a liar. Either way, he’s unfit to serve as governor of Wisconsin,” Remiker said.

“You haven’t watched the video yet? Let me sum it up for you,” former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes said in a social media post. “Trump’s ICE needlessly killed a US citizen without justification.”

Other Democratic candidates had a variety of responses including calling for immigration agents  to vacate Minnesota and calling for the elimination of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  . ICE is responsible for enforcing immigration laws in the United States’s interior, while Border Patrol is supposed to do so near the country’s border, though according to USA Today, the two agencies have become increasingly hard to tell apart under the Trump administration. 

State Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) called for the abolishment of ICE after the shooting. 

“ICE under Trump is incompatible with a free society. The Trump regime is making every single one of us less safe and less free. They are destroying public safety. They refuse to respect our constitution, our law, or our rights,” Roys said in a statement. “The organized, violent actions of ICE have left us with no other choice but to disarm, dismantle, and prosecute ICE.”

State Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison), who joined protests according to social media posts, said “Wisconsin stands with everyone resisting ICE in Minnesota” and called ICE an “enforcer of fascism that must be abolished and those responsible for the executions prosecuted.” Last week at a candidate forum with all of the Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls Hong said that “abolishing ICE is a meaningful policy.” 

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said that the country needs to “stop pretending that large-scale immigration enforcement operations” in the Midwest are about public safety. 

“People — regardless of immigration status or how federal authorities choose to define them — are in danger when ICE operates this way in our neighborhoods,” Crowley said. “At the same time, I echo Gov. Walz and Minnesota officials in urging people not to respond to violence with violence.” 

Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, who previously had proposed banning ICE from certain sites in Wisconsin, said that “a government that puts its own citizens in harm’s way has failed its most basic responsibility. And I will never look away when the government gets this wrong. We have a choice about who we are and what we stand for: safety without cruelty, accountability without fear, and dignity for every human being.”

Missy Hughes, the former Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO, said that “the lawless and deadly ICE invasion of Minneapolis is unAmerican — and Donald Trump is responsible for it.” 

Joel Brennan, the former Department of Administration secretary, said he “recoiled in horror” watching the video of the recent fatal shooting and mourns for Pretti. He called for the “occupation” to end in American cities. 

U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden has repeatedly claimed that the protests against ICE in Minneapolis are equivalent to an “insurrection.” He said on Monday in a Facebook post that he does not “celebrate the death of any American citizen” and the “deaths are tragic, and they never should have happened.” 

But Van Orden blamed Democrats for “fueling hostility toward federal law enforcement.”

“When elected leaders and their allies normalize interference with officers doing their jobs, the outcome is entirely predictable and tragic,” Van Orden said.

Van Orden went on to compare Democratic leaders who have demanded that ICE and Border Patrol agents leave Minneapolis to Civil War Confederates. 

“History has seen this before. In 1861, Confederates in the South demanded that federal troops abandon Fort Sumter. They framed it as de-escalation and local control. In reality, it was a rejection of federal authority and the rule of law. What began as political rhetoric and demands to remove federal presence quickly turned into open conflict, with deadly consequences for the nation,” Van Orden said. “As with any officer-involved shooting, this incident is under investigation. I fully support that process and will be closely following its findings. My support for federal law enforcement, and the rule of law they uphold, remains unwavering.”

CNN reported Monday that Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, who has been at the center of the Trump administration immigration enforcement across the country, is leaving Minneapolis and DHS has suspended his access to his social media accounts. Trump is sending border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota to take charge of immigration enforcement  operations there.

Rebecca Cooke, who is challenging Van Orden in 2026, said in a social media post that Pretti’s  killing represents “a federal agency out of control. ICE needs to vacate Minnesota and leave our neighbors alone. This is not a policy disagreement, this is a moral imperative.”

Pete Buttigieg speaks at a town hall in La Crosse, Wis. on Jan. 16, 2026. | Photo by Ruth Conniff/Wisconsin Examiner

Dairy farmers and U.S. military veterans were heavily represented among the hundreds of voters from western Wisconsin and Minnesota who packed the La Crosse convention center Friday night, braving snow and freezing temperatures to hear what former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had to say about our current political predicament.

Buttigieg was following in the footsteps of other Democrats who have visited Wisconsin’s closely divided 3rd Congressional District to needle Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden for failing to meet publicly with his constituents who are bearing the brunt of tariffs, high prices and unaffordable health care spurred by Trump administration policies Van Orden has supported. 

In making his La Crosse appearance to bolster a Democratic candidate in a swing district ahead of the midterms — and perhaps to stick his toe in the water ahead of a potential 2028 presidential run — Buttigieg connected with rural and blue-collar Midwestern voters.That’s something Democrats arguably need to do better if they are going to overcome total domination by the party of President Donald Trump. 

The most interesting thing about the La Crosse town hall was the energized audience of rural and small-town Wisconsin and Minnesota residents worried about the the scary, violent authoritarian regime that is rapidly consolidating its power over a stunned and fractured citizenry. 

Democratic state Sen. Brad Pfaff, who took the stage ahead of Buttigieg, praised him as “a son of the Midwest,” denounced President Donald Trump’s gilded White House ballroom, and declared, “The rich get tax breaks and what do the rest of us get? Rising costs!” Pfaff also took a jab at “tech bros” who got front-row seats at Trump’s inauguration and are profiting from algorithms that sow “hate and distrust and division.” 

Buttigieg picked up on that theme, urging people to reach out in person to connect with their neighbors who might disagree with them. Responding to a veteran in the audience who said he was in despair about talking to people who live in a pro-Trump social media bubble and who “don’t know how close to the abyss we really are,” Buttigeig said, ”This is where I believe in the power of the offline.” 

“We are increasingly sorted into these silos where not just our opinions, but our facts, or would-be facts, are presented to us. But our relationships, our families, our neighborhoods, our communities, our churches, our little league, our sports loyalty, right? That’s where we have a chance to get through to people.”

Rebecca Cooke, who lost her challenge to Van Orden in 2024 by three percentage points and is seeking a rematch, used her few minutes on stage ahead of Buttigieg to emphasize her dairy farm upbringing and work experience as a waitress, declaring, “I’m a working-class Wisconsinite who hopes to be your next member of Congress.” Cooke touted “right to repair,” legislation, “so every time your John Deere breaks down you don’t have to go to the dealership.” Her parents, she said, were on their annual trip to Mexico to get their dental work done for an affordable price “which is ridiculous.” She described how her dad was hit with a bill for over $1,000 at Walgreen’s when he went to fill a prescription for cancer medication. She’s running, she said, to represent people who “just want to be able to put gas in the car and have a little money left over.”

Going beyond Democrats’ ubiquitous talking points about “affordability,” audience members brought up their spiritual beliefs, the meaning of democracy, how technological change is driving a growing sense of alienation, the need to reconnect with neighbors and overcome political divisions, and the horror of seeing federal agents gun down a woman in a residential neighborhood in Minneapolis.

A young woman who lives near Minneapolis broke down crying as she asked Buttigieg, “How do we deal with this attack on our community, on people that we love?”

“The only antidote to a politics of fear is a politics of courage,” Buttigieg told her, praising her compassion and her desire to work for change. “It seems like you’re alone in caring,” he added, but “the majority of Americans think what’s going on there is wrong.” He had just come from talking to farmers in a conservative area of the state, he said, who were very worried about the impact of immigration enforcement on their workers. “We can bring together strange bedfellows,” he said, “as they’re doing everything they can to pull us apart.” 

A Vietnam veteran, part of a large contingent of vets who stood to accept applause as Buttigieg acknowledged them and thanked them for their service, held up a copy of the U.S. Constitution and said he was upset by Trump’s “abuse” of the military and the National Guard. “I’m really worried that a lot of our people are going to look at our veterans, look at the National Guard — and I’ve got that same creepy feeling that we used to have when we came back before — we’re not going to get the respect for what we really are.”

“Thank you for reminding us of your experience, and I know that was an experience for, really, a generation of service members,” Buttigieg said. When he finished his tour of duty in Afghanistan, he added, “I was fortunate to belong to a generation of veterans who came home to a pretty good welcome, because our country learned the hard way how to separate its attitudes about a policy from its attitudes about the people who were sent somewhere by that policy.”

He connected that change in attitude to a general capacity Americans have for learning from their mistakes, “We learned, we grew. That’s the best thing about this country,” he said. Current efforts to whitewash U.S. history assume that “any time you talk about the things that were wrong about America, that must mean you hate America,” he said, but “some of the finest moments that brought out the greatest character of this country is how we put it right.”

There’s a long way to go before we put things right in our country now, just one year into what already appears to be the most destructive administration in U.S. history. But the feeling in the room at the town hall in La Crosse was hopeful that a new, majoritarian politics could shake off the divisiveness and fear of the Trump era and reclaim democracy and a government by and for the people.

As third-generation dairy farmer Sabrina Servais put it, describing the loss of half of dairy farms in Wisconsin since the early 2000s and her fierce love for her own family’s small, organic farm, “the most beautiful place on Earth,”  “It’s easy to feel small when you’re so far away in rural America. Will anyone listen? … But we matter. We’re a swing state. We have the power to change the outcome of elections. We are the working class of America. How dare they doubt us? … We believe that, despite everything, the world is still beautiful.”

Smoke is seen over buildings after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard on Jan. 3, 2026 in Caracas, Venezuela. According to some reports, explosions were heard in Caracas and other cities near airports and military bases around 2 a.m. (Photo by Jesus Vargas/Getty Images)

The U.S. military action to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Saturday night has divided the candidates running for Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District. 

The swing district is set to be among the most high profile congressional races in the 2026 midterm elections as Democrats try for a third time to unseat incumbent Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden. President Donald Trump won the district in 2024 with 53% of the vote. 

Since Trump’s inauguration, Van Orden has positioned himself as a vocal supporter of the president, often appearing at White House events and loudly defending Trump on social media. 

That defense extended to the Venezuelan raid, of which Van Orden, a former U.S. Navy SEAL, described on X as “perfect.”

“I would like to commend @realDonaldTrump, @SecWar, and the members of our glorious military that conducted the raid in Venezuela to capture the narcoterrorist Maduro,” Van Orden wrote on X shortly after the news of the action was announced. “Perfect operational security and execution.”

Despite regularly criticising American “forever wars,” Van Orden has praised the Venezuela attack as part of an effort to prevent the flow of drugs into the U.S. 

“This operation sends a clear message to America’s adversaries: harming U.S. citizens carries consequences,” Van Orden said in a statement. Nicolás Maduro operated as a narco-terrorist under the false cover of political authority. His criminal network helped fuel the drug trafficking that has killed thousands of Americans. He is now detained and no longer in a position to threaten American lives. President Trump’s decisive leadership made this possible. His administration has made it clear that America will no longer tolerate narco-terrorists who profit from the deaths of our citizens.”

While Van Orden’s defense of the president is expected, two of the Democrats running in the primary to challenge him have diverged on the issue. 

Rebecca Cooke, who ran against Van Orden in 2024 and is widely seen as the frontrunner, criticized the lack of a long term plan in Venezuela and the break from Trump’s campaign promise to stay out of foreign wars, but celebrated the unseating of Maduro despite the lack of congressional involvement in the decision to approve military action on a foreign country. 

“Donald Trump and I don’t agree on much, but one thing we used to agree on is ending American involvement in endless foreign wars,” Cooke said in a statement. “I applaud the excellent work of the CIA and Delta teams in capturing a ruthless dictator in Nicolas Maduro — but where is the concrete plan for stability in the region? We haven’t seen one yet. Without it, our nation involves itself in another foreign conflict. I am disappointed — as I’m sure many Wisconsinites are disappointed — to see this administration betray a central promise when communities across Western Wisconsin are struggling.”

Cooke also said she thinks the president should be more focused on domestic issues.

Emily Berge, the president of the Eau Claire City Council who is running against Cooke in the Democratic primary, criticized the military action without any laudatory comments about deposing Maduro. 

“Derrick Van Orden and Donald Trump promised to be ‘America First’ and to end the longstanding waste of our tax dollars bombing other countries based on fabricated stories all in the pursuit of foreign oil,” Berge said in a statement. “They are both breaking their promises to the American people.”

Across the country, criticism of the attack has focused on the president’s decision to go into Venezuela without approval from Congress — which under the U.S. Constitution retains the authority to approve the use of military force. 

On X, Van Orden supported the lack of congressional notification before the operation, agreeing with a post that stated telling Congress would have resulted in details being leaked to the press. 

However, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin has co-sponsored legislation prohibiting the use of military force in Venezuela without authorization by Congress. 

“President Trump stormed into Venezuela and is drawing the U.S. into another forever war just to take Venezuela’s oil and enrich his big oil buddies,” Baldwin said in a statement. “Simply put, this is not what Wisconsin families signed up for. This puts all the men and women who don the uniform at risk, reeks of corruption, and just shows the President is focused on everything except lowering costs and the issues that keep Wisconsin families up at night. The President cannot just start wars at a whim; he needs to get the people’s approval – and that means Congress signing off.”