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Of publicly advancing that logic, and Stephen Miller is doing his version of an apology. And the Attorney General of the United States went to Minneapolis today and did not make a public appearance there. She simply tweeted that she was there. That is as low profile as any Trump cabinet member has ever been in one of Donald Trump's invasion sites in America. Except, of course, the Secretary of Homeland Security, who is even more low profile today. She's invisible, totally invisible. In the middle of this crisis, she's hiding somewhere, in Washington maybe, and saying nothing. Being allowed to say nothing because Donald Trump has told them all to shut up. Donald Trump and his regime is in retreat tonight. Stephen Miller is in retreat tonight because the protestors are winning. Chris Hayes is doing invaluable reporting from the streets of Minneapolis today, in which he reports that there is no sensation among the people there of a reduction of tensions in Minneapolis at this point, or even a reduction in invasion forces.
But remember, there are always two things about Trump world: what they say and what they do. And right now, what they are saying is that they, they are retreating. Donald Trump is talking about his good phone calls with the governor of Minnesota and with the mayor of Minneapolis, people who he was attacking last week. And Donald Trump is silencing Stephen, Stephen Miller, and keeping him out of the room. He is silencing Kristi Noem. He is silencing his attorney general today on this subject, even though she was in Minneapolis. And so they are in retreat on what they say. And that usually means that their action will follow their rhetoric. They will retreat the invasion forces from Minneapolis in the same way that they retreated from Los Angeles, in the same way that they retreated from Chicago. They will retreat.
This is a week of mourning. It should be a week of national mourning when the federal government guns down law-abiding citizens who believed that they lived in a country where the First Amendment protected them on the streets where they lived, and are now dead because they exercised that belief. Rene Good. Alex Preddy. And in this week of mourning, the National Catholic Reporter writes, quote, "Catholics must decide if they serve Donald Trump or the gospel." And The National Catholic Reporter is concerned with a new Catholic, a particular Catholic, James David Vance, who has been a bit of a wanderer in the wilderness of religion in some portions of his life. He changed his name multiple times and changed his religion a few times. It was not long ago that he moved from atheism to Catholicism, possibly for political reasons before becoming a candidate. So he's new at Catholicism, and he might need more guidance now in his new religion, which might become an increasingly uncomfortable religion for him. Because the National Catholic Reporter says, Vice President J.D. Vance reposted Stephen Miller, who on X called Preddy an assassin and who tried to murder federal agents, a statement that is not supported by any evidence. Vance then shared President Donald Trump's lengthy and borderline incomprehensible justification of the shooting. As a Catholic, Vance could have chosen to share the gospel message of healing and human dignity. Instead, he chose to offer the mega message of division and blame. Vance's comments are once again a moral stain on our collective witness of Catholicism.
Yesterday, Pastor Raphael Warnock, who is the current occupant of one of the most important pulpits in American history, the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Martin Luther King was pastor until his death. Senator Warnock went to Minneapolis and said this: "As I stand, you will, where Alex Freddie lost his life, in a real sense, I feel like I'm standing on holy ground. And the blood spilled on this ground reminds us that we're in a moral moment in our country. And the soul of our nation is at stake. I am a United States senator, and so I'm committed to blocking funding for ICE. I'll deal with that later this week as I make my way back to Washington. But as a pastor, I just wanted to be present with the people of Minneapolis who are standing up in such a courageous way. They're standing with their neighbors. I think of Renee Good, who literally put her body on the line and made the ultimate price. Alex Pretty, of the same. And all of us, in their memory, are called to stand up in this moment and summon, uh, the better angels of our nature, as Lincoln called it, and say no to this evil that is being unleashed onto our streets. Say no to this evil that is being unleashed on our streets."
And the question becomes, how do we say no? Today, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Paul Coakley, issued a statement saying, quote, "The recent killing of two people by immigration enforcement officers in Minneapolis and that of a detained man in Texas are just a few of the tragic examples of the violence that represent failures in our society to respect the dignity of every human life. We mourn this loss of life and deplore the indifference and injustice it represents." J.D. Vance would do well to listen to Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the Archbishop of Newark, who has a question for all of us: How will you say no? How will you say no to what Donald Trump is doing? To what Stephen Miller is doing? How will you say no to the cruelty? How will you say no to the lies? How will you say no to the murders? I think if we are serious about putting our faith in action, we need to say no. Each one of us. And even more importantly, is speaking with others. We'll have to say, how do we say no? Well, in my own faith tradition, I think one way that we say no is that we mourn. We do not celebrate death. And what is probably worse, we do not pretend it doesn't happen. We say names. We pray for the dead. We mourn for a world, a country that allows five-year-olds to be legally kidnapped, and protesters to be slaughtered. I'm speaking to you within a couple of miles of two major detention, detention centers. And everyday people from many faith communities go to Delaney Street here in Newark and to the Elizabeth Detention Center, and they say no, by standing at the gates, by talking with the ICE personnel, by insisting on the rights of the detainees within. They bring them human comfort. They console the families of those who aren't always admitted to see their loved ones. How will you say no? How will you say no to violence? Because as the great teacher Martin Luther King said, "Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." How will you say no? In this week when an appropriations bill is going to be considered in Congress, will you contact your congressional representatives, the senators and representatives from your district? We ask them, for the love of God and the love of human beings, which can't be separated, vote against renewing funding for such a lawless organization. How will you scrawl your answer on the wall? How will you help restore a culture of life in the midst of death? Thank you. God bless you.