Overview
- On air, Joe Scarborough instructed producers to stop displaying Department of Homeland Security statements, accusing the agency of repeatedly lying.
- The directive came during discussion of reports that Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino is being reassigned from Minneapolis after his response to the Alex Pretti killing.
- Bovino and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem asserted that Pretti was brandishing a handgun and planned a massacre, claims critics say conflict with video indicating he held a cellphone.
- Scarborough cited what he called false accounts of the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good as a factor in Republicans beginning to publicly push back on Noem’s statements.
- Media scrutiny spanned outlets across the spectrum, with Newsbusters noting the show used versions of the word 'lie' 21 times in its opening minutes.