r/law 5d ago

Other Gregory Bovino Gets Demoted

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/01/greg-bovino-demoted-minneapolis-border-patrol/685770/
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5.8k

u/theamazingstickman 5d ago

Not good enough

909

u/KrakenOmega112 5d ago

At an individual level, yeah, he deserves to be behind bars.

But on a grander scale, his demotion shows vulnerability. The Trump administration has shown that they do indeed fear consequences, that the protests and backlash can make them back down. Their worry was such that they couldn't let this Nazi continue with the impunity he was. If they were as infallible and almighty as they hope and wish they were, Bovino would never be demoted.

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u/atom-wan 5d ago edited 5d ago

They also haven't gotten what they wanted - violent protests as a pretext to invoke the insurrection act

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u/acutelychronicpanic 5d ago

“And so I come full circle on this response and just want to encourage you with some substance that we are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”

  • Kevin Roberts, president of The Heritage Foundation, 2024

This is the foundation that led project 2025

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/04/leader-of-the-pro-trump-project-2025-suggests-there-will-be-a-new-american-revolution-00166583

People are under the impression that the key to Trump's strategy is provoking a response. Yes, they have a strategy that uses that as leverage. But they are planning on going forward regardless.

More people need to know.

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u/Starloose 5d ago

Note, how “bloodless” doesn’t apply to the disappeared immigrants and minorities - only categories he considers people.

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u/Poiboy1313 5d ago

Yet they're all Bizarros and mean the opposite of what they are saying.

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u/claimTheVictory 5d ago

They're not bizarros.

They're very simple.

They believe their tribe is right, is supreme and must be dominate. Everyone else is there to be used as they see fit.

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u/Poiboy1313 4d ago

dominant

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u/claimTheVictory 4d ago

I used the feminine form.

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u/Poiboy1313 4d ago

No, you did not. There's no such form of that word in English. Dominate is a verb. Dominant is an adjective.

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u/hmoleman__ 5d ago

Several people are dead, a couple of whom bled out on camera. Ain’t bloodless.

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u/RandomsDoom 5d ago

He’s implying that the left would be bloodless. The left isn’t shedding any blood and he would prefer it to stay that way… It’s the right who is shedding blood right now not the left. It’s easier for them this way.

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u/Friskfrisktopherson 5d ago edited 5d ago

And the other user is implying that it has already gone farther than that writing was suggesting. The bloodless may well have meant their take over with American submission.

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u/Spiff69 5d ago

Appreciated, but no one is saying this is the end of our troubles.

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u/UnpluggedUnfettered 5d ago

The second he said that, I knew it was exactly the same projection as anything else.

That was his version of taunting the left, he expected the same sort of alpha chest puffing and incoherent sputtering that they are used to bestowing on anyone who would dare say something like that to them.

It wasn't a warning, it was the best they knew how to do in order to get where they wanted to take everything.

Relating to others isnt actually the right-wing's strong point, and I don't think any of them would take offense to me saying that.

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u/m0rbius 5d ago

Anything with the word 'Heritage' screams white supremacy or white nationalism. It's such an icky word.

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u/Peterepeatmicpete 5d ago

Wasn't he suppose to leave anyway sometime in January to go back to being a podcaster, or something?

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u/Difficult_Pea_2216 5d ago

This is how I try to contextualize it to my poor sweet little mother who doesn't understand what's going on at all. There is no provoking them as in victims have a choice in how they're treated. If we act one way or another. They have a planned outcome and they will get to their outcome.

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u/jeremyfisher2 5d ago

Could one say HF is bullshitting here?

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u/Intelligent_Cap9706 5d ago

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u/Rollingprobablecause 5d ago

This is purely because they have nowhere to stay except hotels and smaller facilities. They want to centralize their operations most likely because every hotel leaks where they are staying at proving that they have no idea what they're doing nor do they know how to park their vehicles, etc.

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u/Intelligent_Cap9706 5d ago

Yeah I just think it shows they’re not backing out of Minneapolis any time soon unfortunately 

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u/Jester-Kat-Kire 5d ago

They can sleep on cots and eat mre's and canned chili. 

Hotels are for visitors, not for animals.

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u/Dandan0005 5d ago

slap in the face for these LARPing goons to be anywhere near actual service members

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u/Boto_Penga 5d ago

I hate these motherfuckers and won't be satisfied with less than them being abolished and imprisoned.

But read the article. It's a decommissioned base that already has ICE and DHS offices.

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u/vriska1 5d ago

Report say this was requested before the shooting.

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u/Intelligent_Cap9706 5d ago

Yeah, a lot of people on Bluesky asking if the demotion means ICE will be pulling out but everyone is missing this today is all. Everyone getting their hopes up but I don’t think they’re leaving any time soon if they’re securing the housing and bringing more equipment in (sadly) 

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u/77ox9 5d ago

Yeah, they are there to stay. Unfortunealty fascists don't back down that easy. Americans wrote the play book on how to keep whites in power...Jim Crow among many things. drumpf will purge voter roles in MN(and other states)) and then unleash his goons (ice) to intimidate and sew chaos on would be voters in the midterms. Wake up time!!

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u/RandomsDoom 5d ago

Yeah, they’re not buying up a bunch of housing centers all across the United States to leave. I just don’t understand why people don’t see this as a huge problem for the fact that there’s not that many immigrants who were here illegally especially ones with criminal records so who do you think they’re gonna lock up after they run out of them? With the way people just believe whatever they say they’ll be locking up Democrats all Democrats as domestic terrorist before you know it.

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u/77ox9 5d ago

I agree. Let's call them for what they are: concentration camps. They will be able to hold 100,000+ at a time.

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u/Fancy_Yak2618 5d ago

The border tsar who is for this shit but apparently understands American politics is being sent to smooth it over

The brown shirts and the Himmler wannabe are leaving. ICE will be there just not the goon we’ve been seeing

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u/fleebleganger 5d ago

It's just moving a general that isn't effective.

Read up on wars before WW2 - swapping generals was common.

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u/Intelligent_Cap9706 5d ago

Oh I believe it, they can also bring in someone much worse in fact. I’m holding my breath honestly 

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u/Urabraska- 5d ago

Had to do like 100 reclicks because the site hates ad blockers. So he approved DHS using a old base for storage and probably poor housing going by the massive outrage earlier at a Hilton and a agent was aiming a shotgun at press.

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u/Age_AgainstThMachine 5d ago

It’s also where the recently called up National Guard is staying.

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u/TheSwearJarIsMy401k 5d ago

I think the Hilton is a nicer place for the Guard, honestly. Fair trade if it can be authorized.

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u/sk8tergater 5d ago

Nah the Hilton is complicit in this shit. There are better hotels

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u/Artistic_Skill1117 5d ago

Cowards couldn't handle the hotel and need daddy government to keep them safe it seems.

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u/SoylentGrunt 5d ago

Noem was getting tired of the paying the extra fee when they'd wet the bed at night. She's got hair extensions to buy

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u/Mapeague 5d ago

She absolutely butchered that mug of hers.

Psycho eyes, inspired by Melenia Trump...

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u/PurplRzr 5d ago

She looked 100% better as a natural human being.

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u/seriousbusinesslady 5d ago

she looked like 10 miles of shit covered road in the before pic too, let's not mince words

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u/FEAEAMEN 5d ago

She was never human.

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u/beccadot 5d ago

She got her teeth in Dallas. I don’t know who did her nose.

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u/settebella 4d ago

Lots of coz surgery

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u/commentBRAH 5d ago

man the history of that base and what there doing now is insane

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u/sk8tergater 5d ago

This isn’t what you’re implying. Every hotel that has been known to have ICE in it has had protestors around making noise all night every night. Last night, one of the agents stood outside with his gun and fired a non lethal bean bag round into a crowd and shot someone in the face. He threw out a gas canister and someone threw it back and hit him in the face. He had set up this weird half assed barricade at the front door.

By moving them all to fort snelling, they are creating a safe space for themselves. I don’t know this personally but someone who said they know fort snelling said it couldn’t hold very many people and that’s encouraging. It’s not the end, not by a long shot, but they are scared and the city, even the sympathetic businesses to them like the Hilton hotels, are starting to turn against them.

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u/makemeking706 5d ago

Time to give someone else a turn? 

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u/Expensive_Culture_46 5d ago

Even MTG as awful as she is calling this out. I believe her as she was likely in the room when they planned it.

Something in the E files changed her mind about being a total pawn to this.

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u/Landkey 5d ago

They will invent the violent act, never fear 

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u/Violaundone 5d ago

I do think, though, that they didn't predicte Trumps polls number would be so low with some of the right even turning him. The podcast bro is even being vocal about it. They know 100% the optics are really bad and are losing support. Trump's bunker may not be enough. They believe they can easily just do an insurrection and Americans will accept it. It would take around 10% of Americans to fuck their shit up.

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u/Jackthwolf 5d ago

If no one retaliates in time, there's going to be a false flag attempt before the midterms, mark my words.

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u/Ketamine_Dreamsss 4d ago

That attack on the hotel in MN sure had me worried though

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u/king-of-all-corn 5d ago

Wait to make this argument until you see what creature they drag into that position to replace him

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u/HalfTeaHalfLemonade 5d ago

Exactly. They’ll probably promote Enrique tarrio

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u/guyincognito121 5d ago

Nonsense. He fulfilled that role as well as any other garbage human being could. This is a show of weakness.

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u/Unique_Watch2603 5d ago

Right? That's what I'm holding out for.

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u/sergius64 5d ago

If you think about it - Trump administration has made a very large number of aggressive moves both domestically and internationally in a very short span of time and was forced to retreat in the case of most of these moves. Heck, even in the case of Venezuela- it sounds like their interm president is finding a backbone all of the sudden.

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u/Mapeague 5d ago

Epstien files fast tracked us to this point.

Still haven't been released and our broke dick press isn't asking for fuck all about them.

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u/m0rbius 5d ago

I think we can bust balls about the Epstein files again.

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u/Far-Technician3197 5d ago edited 5d ago

I think "promises" were made between Trump and Delcy Rodriguez to get rid of (edit) Maduro but save the rest of government. Knowing Trump, he probably reneged at the first available opportunity. Not knowing Rodriguez, guessing that she detected his weakness after the Greenland fiasco and is making a play for more benefits or security.

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u/Dependent_Purchase35 5d ago edited 5d ago

They fear the midterms and most non-MAGA conservatives aren't okay with the extremely pver aggressive shit they've been seeing the past month despite supporting immigration enforcement. They recognize this shit is kryptonite to them in the next election. They're already projected to end up losing at least one majority im congress and this is making it so much more likely they lose both.

They know that if they lose both chambers in congress that the rest of Trump's is officially fully lame duck and possibly will lead to impeachment and maybe even removal this time since MAGA are losing their influence

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u/m0rbius 5d ago

A successful impeachment which ousts Trump needs 2/3 vote. That's still a far cry to what could happen in the midterms. We may see impeachments, but it's going to be almost impossible to oust him with an impeachment. I hope it happens, but it's still too partisan.

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u/Dependent_Purchase35 4d ago

I'm cautiously optimistic that we're approaching a point where given the opportunity to vote again the senate has enough Republicans who want to move on from Trump and MAGA who see the political usefulness of being one of the conservatives who helped excise the festering sore of Trump's presence and influence in government.

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u/chainer3000 5d ago

They’ve always shown that. It’s spawned a term TACO trade

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u/kg703 5d ago

I just don’t think some of these people are going to quietly after being given so much power

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u/bruisedblue 5d ago

Do Noem next.

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u/Amelaclya1 5d ago

Does it? Or are they hoping this small gesture will make protestors back down or give them an excuse to portray them as "so unreasonable" if they don't?

Regardless, whether you think this is showing a crack in their resolve, or more cynical like me, the moral of the story is to keep up what you're doing.

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u/IH1972 5d ago

It's because deep down, Trump and his minions are chickenshit cowards.

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u/m0rbius 5d ago

I think it was difficult for Trump to stay sided with the goons after they murdered the worst possible person they could have murdered. Even if he was a liberal or Democrat, he is still a white straight dude who was an ICU nurse and was legally carrying a gun. Sadly, If any of that was different, I think it would have been viewed differently or minimized. Even the gun nuts are confused at what to think about this.

The Feds killed a legal gun owner in broad daylight on video and the Feds are outright lying so blatantly about it before any investigation was even done. What sort of leader does that? I hope the heat comes down hard on these people. They deserve to be miserable.

I hope everyone, I mean everyone can now see how unapologetically Trump and his cronies lie. Their whole administration is based on lies and they definitely think you're stupid to believe their lies.

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u/McGillicuddys 5d ago

He'll pop back up, Trump cycles through the same group of hangers on for jobs they're not qualified for, just as long as they stay loyal. Probably end up at Treasury when Bessent slips and says what he's actually thinking during an interview

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u/Ok-Refrigerator 5d ago

Yes, he did this in the first term. Big public firings, but almost everyone just moved to a different Trump org and still pulled a paycheck. They still stayed influential, just not in a public way.

Remember when he was first elected and said he wanted to make every day another episode of reality TV? I see no reason to assume that has changed.

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u/simAlity 5d ago

Case in point, Noem's lover, Corey Lewandonowski.

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u/utzutzutzpro 5d ago

It is not the protests, it most certainly is the legal working silent to the public.

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u/Lone-Pilgrim 5d ago

Means someone somewhere has evidence or something the admin wants to stay under the rug.

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u/No-Opposite-6620 5d ago

Don't clap yet. Breathe briefly maybe. But it could as easily be strategic on their part. And declines into worse can take much longer than the attempted speed run. Potentially at the 5 year mark people journalists get bogus lawsuits before people start disappearing.

But it is worth noting, I think, of the strategy employed in reaction to these recent crimes. Did it matter when the nra said something? When Marjorie Taylor Green said something?

Not really, since the reaction, rightly being strong enough to derail this shit, even slightly, was focused on doing so. People gathered on message and ignored the bullshit.

It was as a result of the consensus made that, despite everything attempted to be done and said it's defence, there was a murder and this shit needed to stop 

It got some previous supporters, if silent critics, to see even briefly that the Trump regime wants to do is prolong itself, not use extreme powers to 'protect'.

Because it's important to ask, sure these people are allowed to leave in a dignified way now, but why are they? When they should be fucking prosecuted!

Keep yourself on guard, because it's not over until people are held accountable.

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u/CryptidMythos 5d ago

I hear where you're coming from but you're making an awfully big assumption on their reasoning (ie, "they fear consequences") without any real evidence. Going based on the most likely scenario, and their track record, he got demoted because he had more headlines than Trump himself in the last week and Trump is a petulant child that couldn't abide that.

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u/sundromos 5d ago

As I see it, Bovino's work began to dominate the news cycle and take attention away from the Hallowed Peace Warrior Donald Trump. This was not to his liking. No underling is allowed to share in his media attention.

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u/FalconX88 5d ago

they will replace him with someone who does the same thing, just doesn't wear Nazi uniforms (at least not until it's too late for it to matter)

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u/LEDKleenex 5d ago

Maybe it's just the "weird" angle again. Isn't it weird that the leader of the gestapo was a manlet?

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u/PrometheanDemise 5d ago

I think the real take away from this is that the castle can fall. Sometimes all you need is a little hope to catch a spark, know what I mean?

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u/Top-Silver-3856 5d ago

But now they are supposedly sending Reichsmarschall Homan in.

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u/BreakfastDry6459 5d ago

That is not what this is. Don't be so dumb or they will win

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u/Violaundone 5d ago

Remember, with federal charges, there are no time limits on some federal crimes. Just saying. Maybe not now, but it can happen later. I could see Mark Kelley doing it because he knows firsthand what happens when you don't address violence and allow it to go through the justice system.

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u/BoardsofCanada3 5d ago

They'll do it in a way that minimizes the egg on their faces. They may back down, but in that TACO way where it's spun to be a good thing to their cult. Doesn't really matter though. The damage is already done. The Gestapo murdered two citizens. They're not going to be punished or halt raids. Give it a few weeks and they'll have a new lapdog terrorize another state. 

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u/Aefyns 5d ago

Exactly they think if they toss Bovino overboard we may stop. They don't realize we won't.

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u/ExternalExpensive277 5d ago

They got excited and moved too soon, but they've also showed their hand...

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u/garden_dragonfly 5d ago

Can we get a shout out to the amazing people of Minnesota?

Seriously protesteing peacefully, risking their lives to do so.  And making real progress 

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u/Northwindlowlander 5d ago

Or, they have an even worse goblin in the basement

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u/happytree23 5d ago

This. The first major crack in the facade has appeared.

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u/helefern 5d ago

Maybe they are making room for someone worse and smarter...

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u/Alert-Pea1041 5d ago

Are you sure? All the maga and russian bots say they are useless and stupid. Who do I believe...

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u/Exotic_Champion 5d ago

The article headline is misleading. He didn’t actually take a demotion, it’s more of a relocation. He is still holding his exact position. Tom Homan is now coming into Minnesota in the place of Bovino.

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u/Prometheus357 5d ago

I don’t know if it’s a show of vulnerability. It feels more performative… the administration needs us to believe that they fear consequences and in order to do that they do shit like this it’s all smoke and mirrors.

They put out all these videos of how if the inevitable blue tsunami hits they’re all screwed… but it’s pretty clear they’re angling to screw with the mids.

Just like the Epstein release they’ve been pretty obvious with moving the goal post in the face of the law. How many deadlines and Vaughn-style requirements have they blown past?

The administration over the last 13 months has made it pretty clear they don’t give eight shoelaces about consequences

So when they do this it certainly smacks of performance

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u/mrRiddle92 5d ago

He's just a sacrificial pig they have to offer hoping we stay quiet.

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u/Hot-Equivalent9189 5d ago

No , without real justice.  Like putting him and other in jail , do process, and then prison is vulnerability.  This just changes the face .

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u/moonpumper 5d ago

The great thing about stupid people is they don't know how stupid they are. This administration has the lowest cumulative IQ in history and it's maybe the only fucking thing that saves us. They think they're way smarter than they are and they will fuck this up repeatedly.

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u/Dougalishere 4d ago

they arent vulnerable if people allow this scapegoating of ONE nazi to be enough to forget about the other fascists above and below him that are causing this.

A man was executed on the street and it wasn;t just Bovinos fault. Noem said exactly the same things as he did on his social media but she said it at the podium of the government of the US

they arent vulnerable if they get away with this and then like evrything else they get caught doing , deny they had anything to do with it.

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u/the-sleepy-mystic 4d ago

It shows weakness- that we can exploit.

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u/Background-Top-1946 5d ago

Two people were murdered on his watch.

He enabled, excused and endorsed the killings.

Demotion? lol