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“A 38-year-old man was in custody and will face attempted homicide and aggravated arson charges after setting a fire overnight at Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro's residence, state authorities said at a press conference at the governor's mansion in Harrisburg on Sunday… The residence was set on fire hours after Shapiro posted a picture of his family's ‘seder’ table as they celebrated the first night of the Jewish holiday of Passover.” Reuters
“The man charged with setting fire to the Pennsylvania governor's mansion while the governor and his family were there sleeping told police he did it because of the governor's stance on the war in Gaza, according to a search warrant released on Wednesday… The warrant said [Cody] Balmer told police he believed Governor Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, was encouraging the war in Gaza and that he, ‘needs to stop having my friends killed,’ and ‘our people have been put through too much by that monster.’” Reuters
The left condemns the attack, and argues that Trump’s rhetoric encourages violence.
“Firebombing a Jewish elected official’s home because of his support for Israel is antisemitism. Period. This didn’t happen in a vacuum. This is the sad and inevitable result of broader antisemitic efforts to target Jewish Americans in the name of supporting Palestinian rights…
“It is also part of a pattern of increasingly normalized hate and political violence… In the past few years, we’ve witnessed a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, a plot to kidnap the Michigan governor, a violent attack on then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband in their California home, two assassination attempts against Trump, and countless other threats…
“This comes alongside a broader rise in violent extremism, including a cycle of deadly white supremacist attacks in Charlottesville, Pittsburgh, Poway, El Paso, Buffalo, and elsewhere, many fueled by the ‘Great Replacement’ lie—as well as ever-increasing antisemitic and broader hate crimes.”
Amy Spitalnick, The Contrarian
“Trump has used his megaphone and his official powers in dangerous ways: embracing far-right groups, casually threatening to jail his political enemies, egging on the January 6 riot at the Capitol, pardoning the insurrectionists who were convicted of crimes. No other major American political leader in recent memory—and certainly no other president—has so publicly entertained the idea of getting his way by force…
“Trump’s statement [Monday], in reference to the attack on Shapiro, that ‘a thing like this cannot be allowed to happen,’ was a healthy sign. Then again, the president had waited a day and a half to condemn the incident. And he’d asserted, unprompted, that he’d heard Balmer was ‘not a fan of Trump’—as if to insist that no one in his camp could have done such a thing.”
Juliette Kayyem, The Atlantic
“Mitt Romney told my colleague McKay Coppins that a fellow congressman confessed to him that he had wanted to vote for Trump’s second impeachment in 2021 but ultimately chose not to out of fear for his family’s safety. That same year, Republican Representative Peter Meijer told my colleague Tim Alberta that he witnessed a fellow member of Congress have a near breakdown over fear that Trump supporters would come for his family if he voted to certify the 2020 election results…
“The attack on Shapiro served no clear benefit to Trump, which is why he was able to so quickly speak out against it. Compare that with how he’s talked about the Pelosi hammer attack, which he has used as fodder to mock the Pelosis… Trump condemns political violence only when he has nothing to gain from it.”
Ali Breland, The Atlantic
The right condemns the attack, and argues that Democrats must condemn violence from the left.
The right condemns the attack, and argues that Democrats must condemn violence from the left.
“Balmer wasn’t coy in his conversation with a 911 dispatcher. He pledged to stay put and await his arrest, at which point he would ‘confess to everything,’ but not because he was repentant. The suspect appeared to believe that he had meted out a righteous blow for justice, and he seems convinced that the community of pro-Palestinian activists would celebrate his actions and martyrdom…
“Democratic politicians have established for themselves an extensive record of claiming that acts of political violence can be traced back to the rhetoric exhibited by their domestic opponents. They should be held to their own standard. Shapiro’s many critics on the left make no bones about the degree to which his support for Israel renders him persona non grata among progressives…
“The party has put off elementary political hygiene for too long. It has tried to have it both ways — distancing itself from the anti-Israel agitators just enough to plausibly claim mutual animosity while courting the activist fringes at almost every turn. There ought to be a reckoning with the extent to which Shapiro’s party coddled this extreme movement, the fringes of which are inclined to lash out violently at their perceived opponents.”
Noah Rothman, National Review
“In a recent Rutgers study, 55% of liberals told researchers--admitted aloud!--that killing President Trump would be justified. Luigi Mangione has a fan base large enough that they have spokesmen in Congress, in the media, and laughing along with CNN reporters about how dreamy and moral the assassin of an innocent man they dislike is…
“There is literally no more armed population in world history than modern American conservatives… But the one conservative-led ‘riot’ about which we have been lectured for years now--absurdly called an ‘insurrection’ designed to take over the United States government--was without weapons?… The January 6th riot was shameful, but it was far less violent than a typical weekend night in Chicago and is a pimple on a gnat's butt compared to the months of George Floyd riots.”
David Strom, Hot Air
“When they called the violent 2020 Black Lives Matter riots ‘peaceful protests,’ as thugs threw bricks in windows, looted businesses, and burned neighborhoods, the left normalized violence. When Pennsylvania authorities responded to the protests with new rules for police, instead of clear punishment for the destruction of neighborhoods, they normalized violence… Democrats should not be surprised when the political violence they normalized happens to one of their own.”
Beth Brelje, The Federalist
