Whoopi Goldberg chokes up on air over Alex Pretti's 'straight up murder'

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: As America reacts to the fatal shooting of 37‑year‑old Alex Pretti by US Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis, co‑hosts of 'The View' gathered on Monday, January 26, to criticize the federal officials over the incident.

Whoopi Goldberg became emotional on air as she spoke about Pretti’s death and accused government leaders of responsibility, saying officials have “blood on their hands” in their handling of the case.

Whoopi Goldberg calls out Kristi Noem and Greg Bovino over Alex Pretti’s death

Whoopi Goldberg spoke emotionally about the killing of Alex Pretti during Monday’s episode of 'The View'. “They murdered a man. He is standing, he has his phone and he has a bottle of water. And they shot him ten times. What the —,” Goldberg said, cutting herself off as she became visibly upset.

She then questioned what authorities were investigating if they were not focused on what she called “the straight up murder — the straight up murder. This is the second one, the second murder of an American citizen.”

Goldberg continued her criticism, saying, “If you don’t see it, it’s willful. It’s because you’re not looking. You can’t sit by this.”

She also directly challenged top officials involved in the immigration operation. “Kristi Noem, you can’t justify this. Mr Bovino, you can’t justify this,” she said. “You can’t justify either one, and we all see it and we see you for what you are. You all have blood on your hands.”

Pretti, a VA nurse who was killed on Saturday, died just weeks after 37‑year‑old Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent while driving away from a protest.

‘The View’ weighs in on killing of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents

The co-host of 'The View,' Sara Haines, joined the discussion, saying that ICE agents are the ones bringing violence. "The people that seem to be bringing the violence are the ICE agents themselves. I know there are good ICE agents. The problem is they're currently recruiting people using imagery from single-shooter games, giving them this vibe that they're coming to get rid of vermin, and they're also telling them they have immunity," she said.

She added, "They're not even getting investigated properly. The administration has spoken and set the tone for this. That's what we're seeing right now. That's why people are being killed completely unjustly."

Republican commentator Ana Navarro, who has long criticized the Trump administration, stressed that Pretti — who carried a gun with a permit — was only "brandishing a camera" before his death.

"This government does something that I am not used to saying about a US government. It lies to the citizens, it lies to the people. So, for them, a camera is just as dangerous as a gun," Navarro said. "What they don't want is for people to see the truth."

Legal expert and former federal prosecutor Sunny Hostin paused to collect her thoughts, fighting back tears as she described how the events affected her. "My mental state today, after spending the weekend watching these videos over and over again, is fragile, just because I always believed in the rule of law. I've dedicated my life to enforcing the rule of law, studying the law," Hostin said.

She added, "To see the lawlessness by the United States government is deeply disturbing."

Former Trump White House staffer Alyssa Farah Griffin commented, "This is incompetence by law enforcement, and it's cruelty by law enforcement." She asked,

"Do we stand for anything if not for half of the Bill of Rights at this moment?" Griffin noted that millions of Americans were snowed in and "glued to TVs" following a major storm, saying, "The administration can say whatever the hell it wants, we have our eyes and we have our ears, and we know what we saw."