Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent swerved a question from Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) during his Senate hearing on Thursday, bringing up Ashli Babbitt’s Jan. 6 Capitol attack death when asked a question about the Minneapolis shooting of Alex Pretti.
Bessent appeared before the Senate banking committee on Thursday to testify on the Financial Stability Oversight Council’s Annual Report for 2025. When Van Hollen began questioning Bessent, he first pressed him on his response to the January shooting of Pretti by multiple Border Patrol agents.
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“You suggested that Alex Pretti was culpable in his own killing because he had a gun in his waistband holster, which he was licensed to carry,” Van Hollen said. “So, Mr. Secretary, today, would you like to retract that statement?”
Van Hollen’s line of questioning was directed at a statement Bessent made the day after Pretti’s death, in which he said, “I am sorry that this gentleman is dead, but he did bring a 9mm semi-automatic weapon with two cartridges to what was supposed to be a peaceful protest.”
Pretti’s legally open-carrying has become a sticking point in conservatives’ response to the shooting.
“I would not. And would you like to express remorse over the death of Ashli Babbitt here in the Capitol?” Bessent asked Van Hollen in response, referring to Babbitt’s death by Capitol Police when trying to break into the Speaker’s Lobby.
“I have expressed remorse over that, so I’ve done that,” Van Hollen said. “I have other questions, but I actually would have expected you to take this opportunity to rephrase your response to that question. So you think the fact that he legally had a gun justified his killing?”
“I didn’t say that at all,” Bessent said.
The two went back and forth for a few moments before Van Hollen ultimately said, “I’m asking you a question now: Do you believe he was in any way culpable for his own killing because he legally carried a gun?”
“This is an FSOC hearing. Why don’t we talk about financial stability and oversight?” Bessent said.
Van Hollen dropped the line of questioning, saying, “Your credibility is important, and in that response, I think you let down the country because we expect honesty after that kind of terrible tragedy.”
Following Pretti’s death, several members of the Trump administration followed Bessent’s suit in raising questions over Pretti’s decision to carry a gun while protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis. President Donald Trump also said he did not “like” that Pretti had a gun.
“I don’t like that he had a gun. I don’t like that he had two fully loaded magazines,” Trump said. “That’s a lot of bad stuff, and despite that, I say that’s a very unfortunate incident.”
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The response brought pushback from gun rights activists and the National Rifle Association because Pretti was a licensed owner.
“Watching what we saw in the video, I think we all have a lot of questions,” former NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch said. “I encourage people to carry. I encourage people to exercise their Second Amendment rights, but I also recognize that people need to be encouraged to de-escalate as well and make sure that you are not impeding any kind of federal investigation.”
