It took only hours after an allegedly Trump-supporting gunman shot multiple Democratic state lawmakers and their spouses for the right-wing misinformation machine to chug into action.
Vance Boelter allegedly murdered Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman (D) and her husband Mark and shot Sen. John Hoffman (D) and his wife Yvette early Saturday morning. He has since been taken into custody.
The right-wing machine’s task, obfuscating this clear-cut episode of right-wing political violence, should have been difficult. In addition to a manifesto, which has not been released, Boelter had written down the names of other targets: a list, per an FBI affidavit, of “mostly or all” Democratic politicians, reportedly in addition to abortion providers and activists. The anti-abortion motivation slots in neatly with archetypal right-wing violence, which has often involved misogynistic elements.
There was also, by Sunday, an easily excavated tranche of evidence suggesting his political ideology: interviews with his roommate who said he’d be “offended” to be called a Democrat, that he was a staunch Trump supporter and that he considered abortion to be “murder,” along with a sermon he’d delivered about the evils of abortion-supporting American churches.
The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (the state’s Democratic Party) even released data showing that he voted in the state’s primary last year, but not as a Democrat. The state Republican Party declined to release its own data. Friends and colleagues told the Associated Press that he is a devout Christian who attended Trump rallies.
But right-wing influencers (both in and out of office) and the vast social media and formal media apparatus from which they disseminate their theories required no real evidence to spread their perma-thesis: Right-wing violence doesn’t really exist. When those on the right (routinely) commit it, they are either secretly liberal (the story they told in this case), it wasn’t actually violence (Jan. 6 “tourists”) or their victims deserved the violence they experienced (the hammer attack on Paul Pelosi).
Just-Add-Water Conspiracy Theories
The “proof” here, that Boelter is actually an evil Democrat, in many tellings deployed by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), is laughably fantastical. There are three primary pieces of “evidence” that comprise the theory: a) Walz reupped Boelter’s membership to a workforce development advisory board, supposedly revealing their close bond, b) Boelter’s wife was a former Walz intern and c) Rep. Hortman gave a tearful interview earlier this month after voting for a budget bill that, among other things, ended health care for undocumented people. Her reaction was, in this story, proof of her terror that she’d be killed by the left for her vote.
A stack of flyers for the “no kings” protests held around the country this weekend found in Boelter’s vehicle served as a supporting data point for some of these conspiracy theories, a sign of his left-wing affiliation more than what law enforcement took it as — a potential threat of him committing further violence, leading Walz to attempt to shut down the Minnesota-based protests.
Each argument is weaker than the last. Walz seems to have rubber-stamped the members of the dinky state board on which Boelter served, to which he was first appointed by Walz’s predecessor Mark Dayton. Walz’s office told the Minnesota Star Tribune that the former intern is a different woman who is not married to Boelter. And Hortman was emotional in the interview because she vehemently opposed stripping undocumented adults of their health care, but was voting for the larger budget.
The details, though, hardly matter. It’s that the Jan. 6 insurrectionists are peaceful patriots, it’s Paul Pelosi’s secret gay trysts, it’s that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is a terrorist, it’s that violent, “antifa” protesters and immigrant “invaders” invite a military crackdown. These stories confirm to the MAGA faithful that they aren’t part of a movement whose most influential members explicitly accept and celebrate right-wing violence.
“Tim Walz’s goons are now assassinating law makers who support legislation Walz opposes,” Laura Loomer, conspiracy theorist and Trump confidant, tweeted. “The Democrat Party is a terrorist organization.”
“Did Tim Walz have her executed to send a message?” MAGA influencer Mike Cernovich mused in response to the video of Hortman’s tearful interview.
Elon Musk posted that “the far left is murderously violent.” Turning Points USA’s Charlie Kirk wrote that: “There are far too many mentally unstable and suggestible people on the left for them to so recklessly turn up the political temperature every time they lose an election.”
More formal right-wing media helped the obfuscation along. The New York Post’s cover blared: “Masked Walz appointee suspected in assassination of politician.”
As always, the conclusive proof that the Trumpist Republican Party embraces political violence committed by its adherents comes from the counternarrative offered by its leaders. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) baselessly said that the shooting was committed by a “Marxist” before tweeting a photo the police released of the alleged shooter wearing a mask at one of the lawmakers’ homes with the chillingly jocular caption: “nightmare on Walz street.” Monday afternoon, he retweeted Musk’s “murderously violent” tweet with “fact check: TRUE.”
“The degree to which the extreme left has become radical, violent, and intolerant is both stunning and terrifying,” wrote Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH), reacting to the “no kings” flyers in the car.
Trump put out a statement saying that “such horrific violence will not be tolerated,” but when asked about the murders live pivoted to attacking Walz as a “terrible governor” and a “grossly incompetent person.”
“Both Sides”
Trump’s whitewashing, rehabilitation and celebration of those who do violence in his name is obvious: On his first day in office, he pardoned everyone who participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection, including those who attacked police officers. He often threatens to use the force of the state against peaceful protesters who oppose his presidency and has said that he’s considering pardoning the right-wing men who plotted to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D).
Yet the country’s biggest news outlets still shy away from saying so explicitly. More often, they situate episodes like this weekend’s assassinations within a rising tide of general political violence, using the 2017 shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), the attempted assassination of Trump and Luigi Mangione’s alleged murder of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, as evidence that the violence is coming from both sides.
A key difference, though, as Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) pointed out online, is that institutional Democrats, unlike the right, reliably condemn those acts of violence too.
“For the last five years, MAGA has been bathed in political violence,” Murphy wrote. “Most importantly, MAGA’s celebration of January 6th and Trump’s decision to pardon ALL the Jan 6 rioters — including the most violent — became a clear endorsement of violence committed in his name.”
He pointed to Trump’s cozying up to brutal dictators, his threats against protesters and the MAGA fetishization of guns as features of the party that have no equivalent on the left.
“When MAGA uses violence against its political opponents and endorses private acts of violence when committed in service of MAGA, unhinged people listen — mostly on the right, but also on the left. Once violence gets mainstreamed, it’s hard to put it back in the bottle,” he wrote.
Elected Republicans’ embrace or excusal of right-wing violence has so many examples that they blur together. Multiple sitting Republican members of Congress have been stripped of their committee assignments for posting violent fantasies about killing their Democratic colleagues (both Reps. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and Majorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) had their committee membership promptly restored when Republicans won the majority in 2024). Far short of calling for impeachment for Trump’s pardon of the insurrectionists, Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic resolution merely condemning the pardons. Republicans from Trump to Virginia Gov. Glenn Younkin (R) to then-RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel joked about the Paul Pelosi attack, or spread the lie that it was a byproduct of an affair gone wrong (the attacker told police that he had been hoping to break Nancy Pelosi’s kneecaps so she’d have to ride in a wheelchair through the halls of Congress).
The reluctance to name the movement that claimed two more lives this weekend, and attempted to take more, ensures that Trump will never face accountability for the political environment he’s created. It ensures that the next time a right-wing adherent’s rage curdles into violence, he can act on it — knowing that not only will he not hurt the party, he may even be welcomed warmly back into the MAGA fold.
They’re losing, their act is getting old, and they know it, so doubling down is required. Fuck 'em all.
Republican motto. “Never Responsible for Anything.”
VIP normally means “Very Important Person,” but DJT’s policies and actions prove he is a “Very Impotent Person.” P.S. Mike Lee is a supreme jackass, undeserving of his office.
Wait, so a bunch of evil, fascist rent boys masquerading as congressional representatives who were put in place to cut taxes for their owners to zero are lying? Oh, the humanities. Wake me when the news media starts calling out these motherfuckers for the liars they are instead of giving us yet another round of the “he said/she said” bullshit.
Mike Lee just improved his position in the race to the fiery bottom of hell for his gleeful take on all this. The nazi spirit is strong in that one.