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“A massive two-day manhunt ended on Sunday with the arrest of Vance Boelter, 57, for allegedly killing a Minnesota Democratic state lawmaker and her husband while posing as a police officer… Boelter allegedly shot dead Melissa Hortman, the top Democrat in the Minnesota House, and her husband, Mark, in their home on Saturday - a crime Governor Tim Walz characterized as a ‘politically motivated assassination.’ Authorities said Boelter also allegedly shot and wounded another Democratic lawmaker, state Senator John Hoffman, and his wife Yvette at their home a few miles away.” Reuters
“[Boelter] meticulously planned the shootings and intended to inflict more carnage against those on his hit list, driving to the homes of two other legislators on the night of the attacks, a federal prosecutor said Monday…
“Boelter had many notebooks full of plans… But authorities have not found any writings that would ‘clearly identify what motivated him,’ [US Attorney Joseph] Thompson said. Though the targets were Democrats and elected officials, Thompson said it was too soon to speculate on any sort of political ideology.” AP News
The left argues that Trump’s rhetoric is largely responsible for increased political violence.
“Trump [has] encouraged supporters to beat up hecklers at his rallies, saying he’d cover their legal bills if they ‘knock the crap’ out of them. He floated the ideas of shooting looters, shooting shoplifters, and shooting migrants crossing the border. Trump also targeted the press, sharing a variety of violent memes involving specific outlets. He endorsed Greg Gianforte, now the governor of Montana, specifically because he violently attacked a reporter…
“In 2016, he suggested that maybe there was something that ‘Second Amendment people’ could do to deal with Hillary Clinton. In October 2022, when a QAnon disciple who had peddled Trump’s lies about the 2020 election attempted to assassinate then–Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi—and fractured the skull of her husband, Paul, with a hammer—Trump made light of the incident… Trump [once] openly mused that Mark Milley, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, should be killed…
“Trump, more than anyone, should be aware of the risks of political violence. After all, he narrowly escaped an assassin’s bullet last summer… [But] when that assassination attempt happened, Biden didn’t mock it; Kamala Harris didn’t float the idea of pardoning the assassin; and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries hadn’t previously mused that Trump should be executed, or that he was human scum, or that Jeffries would pay the bills of people who used violence against Republicans.”
Brian Klaas, The Atlantic
“[Former Republican Sen. Mitt Romney] said in his 2023 biography that Trump’s threats of violence kept Republican opponents in line. Specifically, he said that at least one Republican senator would not vote to convict Trump after his impeachment for January 6 because the senator ‘feared for his family’s safety.’…
“Other Republican senators have also admitted that they are afraid to cross Trump because of the threat of physical, as well as political, retaliation. North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis has noted that he receives death threats from Trump supporters regularly. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said succinctly earlier this year, ‘We are all afraid.’”
Noah Berlatsky, Public Notice
“The link between dehumanizing rhetoric and political violence is well-known. When you call people ‘filth’ or ‘baby-killers,’ someone somewhere will start to believe they should be treated accordingly. You might seek refuge in the claim that that someone suffers from a psychiatric condition. But if you’ve got tens of thousands of followers, what are the chances that there won’t be unstable people among them?…
“It is worth remembering, too, that political violence is not reserved to one sect of any religion or political party. But the ideological movement or movements that appear to have contributed to the conditions for this alleged crime are part of the ruling administration.”
Katherine Stewart, The Contrarian
The right is worried by the increase in political violence.
The right is worried by the increase in political violence.
“I don’t know why the man killed the state representative and her husband or shot the other two in Minnesota. Brian Stelter of CNN rushed rapidly to conclude it was a right-wing assassination. He does not do that to the left when, for example, two Israeli embassy employees were gunned down by a socialist antisemite a day after CNN ran a false story based on Hamas propaganda…
“When James Hodgkinson committed the mass assassination attempt of Republicans in Congress and it turned out he was an obsessive MSNBC fan, the media collectively moved on quickly. When two separate would-be assassins attempted to take the life of Donald Trump, there was never any talk about the rhetoric from MSNBC or even CNN, which is often hysterical about Trump.”
Erick-Woods Erickson, Substack
“[Boelter] was plainly struggling with financial and mental health problems — after years of inflating his own reputation. Just as it now looks like the kid who nearly killed President Donald Trump last year was disturbed, as was the guy who almost offed Rep. Gabby Giffords back in 2011 and were a host of other political shooters in the years in between. But troubled minds and souls take cues from the world around them, and American political rhetoric has grown routinely too heated.”
Editorial Board, New York Post
“After years of being on edge – due to rounds of rioting and violent protests at ground zero for the ‘Summer of Love’ – Minnesota is no longer what [former] Governor [Wendell] Anderson described as ‘remarkably civil.’ Nor is any part of the country. The assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, the attacks on the U.S. Supreme Court, the murder of two young Israeli embassy staff members, the arson at Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s residence, and assassination attempts on President Trump suggest every corner of the country has lost its way.”
Jenna Stocker, Spectator World
“[The Minnesota murders] are part of the broader wave of political violence—fire bombings, riots, and homicides—that has swept the country over the past six months. Leaders on the right should condemn them with exactly the same force as they have the many violent incidents perpetrated by left-wing criminals, making it clear that there is no partisan valence to opposing murder…
“It would be pointless to tally up these incidents against recent bouts of left-wing violence and try to judge which ‘side’ has more of a problem. Both do. More importantly, leaders on both sides have an interest in speaking out against political violence, if for no other reason than to protect themselves against it… Trump’s statement on the incident—which made clear that ‘such horrific violence will not be tolerated in the United States of America’—is a model to be followed.”
Charles Fain Lehman, City Journal
This Elusive Antarctic Squid Was Seen for the First Time.
New York Times
