More of This, Please! CBS Invites Conservative Dana Loesch to Debate Minneapolis

Curtis Houck
January 26th, 2026 3:13 PM

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Monday’s CBS Mornings provided another example of what many of us hope to see more of at a Bari Weiss-led CBS News in spotlighting diverse viewpoints the audience has either not heard from enough or not at all. This time, featured co-host Vladimir Duthiers discussed and debated with our friend and conservative talk radio host Dana Loesch the fallout of Saturday’s deadly Border Patrol shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

Duthiers first asked what Loesch, a former spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association (NRA) and one of conservatism’s best minds on the Second Amendment, made of claims by the administration that Pretti should not have even been there with his firearm (even though he had a legal permit to carry).

After Duthiers added Loesch herself has said “you have gone to protests and you have been armed yourself,” Loesch replied “the administration needs to be a little careful with language and language is incredibly important…not…for some sort of gate-keeping rule,” but “because certain words invoke certain statues and certain penalties[.]”

Loesch then explained where the situation devolved with Pretti crossing the line to obstructing a law enforcement function whereas she herself would carry at protests and not seek to cause problems (click “expand”):

[S]imply approaching law enforcement with a firearm isn’t indicative of ill intent, nor is it a crime. And, as accurately said, I have over the years, many years, have been armed at protests, both concealed carry and open carry. I have been right in the front face presence of law enforcement while open carry, but there is a difference, though, and I really want people to pay attention to this. At no point was I ever detained nor was I shot at or did I – was I involved in any kind of altercation with law enforcement because I did not insert myself into any kind of federal investigation, and that’s what’s really important here. There’s a difference between carrying by law enforcement and there’s a difference between carrying while in commission of felonious activity and according to U.S. statute, this is federal law, you cannot insert yourself or impede law enforcement operations, and I’m sure that this investigation is going to uncover a lot of questions, and we all have a lot of questions about this. We’ve all seen the videos. We have all seen the angles. But there is a difference – I would never carry and then impede official law enforcement investigation because then it kicks off this domino effect of potentially tragic circumstances that I think everybody wants to avoid.

Duthiers followed up by defending Pretti’s position as merely “helping a woman who was pushed down” and, as a result, he was “pepper sprayed by a federal agent before he himself is dragged to the ground.”

Asked how that would be “imped[ing] or disrupt[ing] an operation,” Loesch said the “moments leading up to” the deadly encounter” will be critical and available videos are “very chaotic” with “[l]ots of people talking, there’s lot of noise, you’ve got the whistle in the background.” The difficulty in ascertaining who said and did what, Loesch argued, was the fault of “some of the leaders in [Minnesota], who have not walked back their rhetoric” by telling protests to confront federal officials.

Duthiers responded by arguing those in Minneapolis are having their Fourth Amendment rights violated by immigration agents showing up places of residence and now someone’s Second Amendment rights lead to their death, but Loesch cut to the heart of the matter in the necessity to remove dangerous illegal aliens from the country:

Loesch ended with what our Jorge Bonilla called a “masterclass” amid the left’s “Strange New Respect” for the Second Amendment with leftist Duthiers asserting what’s taking place could be seen by some as “an American citizen…faced the tyranny.”

Loesch immediately tore this to shreds: “I don’t know if I would classify the actions of border enforcement to be tyranny” considering their actions are targeting those Minnesota and Minneapolis have “allow[ed]…to run in the street here illegally after having committed numerous violent crimes including child predation, brutal rape.”

Unlike a number of liberal hosts or panelists (e.g. Abby Phillip’s CNN show), Loesch tried to close on a unifying note (click “expand”):

LOESCH: So, I don’t know if I would call enforcing that necessarily to be tyranny. However, you know, to your point and the reason we are all here today, watching what we saw in the video, I think we all have a lot of questions and I think, too – I encourage people to carry –

DUTHIERS: Dana –

LOESCH: – I encourage people to exercise their Second Amendment rights, but I also recognize that people need to be encouraged to deescalate as well and make sure that you are not impeding any kind of federal investigation.

DUTHIERS: Dana, really – really –

LOESCH: But – for the administration, they need to be careful with their words.

DUTHIERS: – yeah, that’s an excellent point. I encourage also people to read your Substack. It really is interesting.

Earlier in the show, CBS also showed nuance in discussing this tragedy with a CBS News contributor and former Suffolk County, New York police commissioner:

            TWEET: https://x.com/CurtisHouck/status/2015825333102981375

In contrast, there was more nonsense in correspondent Nicole Sganga providing a supposed analysis of the available videos (which NBC’s Tom Winter was, like with the Renee Good case, exceptional): +

To see the relevant CBS transcript from January 26, click here.

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