GOP Sees Democratic Conspiracy Behind Minnesota Lawmaker Murders
Trump and his hideous brand of thuggery may not have directly caused the assassination of a Democratic official and her husband and the wounding of two others but it surely makes the ground fertile for such hatred.
For proof, look at the immediate wild and unproven conclusions of several Republican officials along with the most vile far right conspiracy instigators.
The suspect, 57-year-old Vance Boelter, was arrested on Sunday following a two-day manhunt in Minnesota after he allegedly posed as a police officer and shot and killed former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, early Saturday morning at their Brooklyn Park home in Minneapolis. Boelter allegedly committed the murders after wounding State Sen. John Hoffman, also a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette, in their nearby Champlin home in a related attack.
When he was arrested, Boelter was found with a cache of weapons, including at least three AK-47 assault rifles and a 9mm handgun, along with a manifesto that listed the names of 70 names and addresses, including other public officials. Published reports said the list also included the names of abortion rights advocates and information about healthcare facilities.
The Anti-Defamation League reported that over the past 10 years, more than three-quarters of extremist killings have been by right-wing actors, often white supremacists. That’s nearly 20 times the number of deaths at the hands of left-wing extremists.
Regardless, some Republicans concocted a mixture of misinformation, speculation, innuendo and lies to try to show that somehow, the shootings were fueled by Democrats.
One of the first to capitalize on the tragedies was Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. The day Boelter was arrested, Lee posted on X a photo of Boelter accused of posing as a police officer and shooting two Democratic lawmakers and their spouses. Along with the image, Lee wrote, “This is what happens When Marxists don’t get their way.”
Lee linked the photo of Boelter to Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, posting on X about the “Nightmare on Waltz Street.”
The facts that Boelter was a registered Republican and trump supporter did not fit Lee’s depraved efforts to distort reality and blame “Marxist” Democrats for the attacks. Lee also was not swayed from his contrived theories by the fact that Boelter had an apparent hit list of nearly 70 targets, largely Democrats or figures with ties to Planned Parenthood or the abortion rights movement, hardly the classic targets of Democrats or “Marxists.”
Right wing Republicans claimed that evidence of Democratic participation in the murder conspiracy was the fact that in 2019 Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, a Democratic vice presidential candidate in 2024, had appointed Boelter to the state’s Workforce Development Board. The board was one of many that includes bi-partisan members, not just Democrats.
Other supposed signs of a Democratic conspiracy was that Hortman was targeted because she had spearheaded a compromise with Republicans under which undocumented adults would no longer be eligible for a state health care program. The tenuous GOP theory goes nowhere because the other lawmaker shot by Boelter voted against the plan. So much for a Democratic conspiracy.
And then there the flyers for the anti-Trump “No Kings” protests this weekend that were allegedly found in Boelter’s car, as if he supported those protests. It is more likely that Boelter had the flyers as part of his plans to shoot the Minnesota lawmakers. Protest organizers canceled their events out of fear the protesters could be targeted.
Billionaire Elon Musk, the former director of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency wrote on X, the social networking site that he owns, “The far left is murderously violent.” Even Musk’s own X AI chatbot, Grok, refuted Musk’s claims about the attacks and that the alleged shooter was going after lawmakers who are often characterized as “far left” by critics.
Grok wrote that “The claim that ‘the left’ is murderously violent isn’t backed by evidence. No side is inherently violent; generalizations oversimplify a complex issue.”
Musk inaccurately referred to past political violence when he posted that left has become a “full-blown” domestic terrorist organization.
“The left kills the CEO of United Healthcare. Kills two Israeli ambassadors staffers. Attempts twice to assassinate the President. Doxes and attempts to murder federal ICE agents and Police — all week. And now kills a MN state rep and her husband and injures a Senator and his wife. The left has become a full blown domestic terrorist organization,” the post said.
Over the weekend, former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) deleted his post which said that the shooting was “horrific” and that Boelter was an “ultra-liberal activist.”
“If ‘what appears to be a politically motivated assassination’ ends up being done by an ultra-liberal activist upset by the lawmakers’ votes to end taxpayer funded healthcare for illegal aliens, watch for many on the left to be silent or even justify it,” Walker wrote. “Wrong!”
Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, was not dissuaded by the inconvenient facts when he posted on X, “The degree to which the extreme left has become radical, violent, and intolerant is both stunning and terrifying.”
Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., also offered his wise observations when he posted that the shootings were “scary stuff, but it seems to all be coming from the left.”
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson quickly spun the bloodbath and blamed Democrats for trying “to exploit this tragedy and blame President Trump.”
“If Democrats are truly concerned about lowering tensions they should warn their Democrat colleagues to stop telling supporters they are ‘at war’ and encouraging them to fight ‘in the streets’ against President Trump,” said Jackson. “President Trump — the survivor of two assassination attempts — is uniting the country through patriotism, prosperity, and success. Radical Democrats must stop with their divisive, violent rhetoric.”
Trump’s plans to deport millions of immigrants sparked demonstrations in California that spread to several other states and major cities. In an over the top response, trump deployed the National Guard and a Marine detachment to keep order during the generally peaceful protests. The military certainly exacerbated tensions rather than minimize them.
Jackson fed into the false narrative of Democratic violence with explosive accusations, saying that “ICE agents are facing a 413 percent increase in assaults because of violent rhetoric and smears from Democrats, including calling them neo-Nazis and Gestapo for simply enforcing immigration law.”
Clueless Leader
Trump, as clueless as ever, slammed the lid on any prospect that he might try to assuage fears of more political violence. Asked if he planned to offer words of support to Walz, trump responded, “I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out, I’m not calling him.”
“I could call him, say, ‘Hi, how are you doing?’” Trump told reporters. “The guy doesn’t have a clue, he’s a mess. So I could be nice and call him, but why waste time.”
And rather than adding a calming voice to the nation’s angst, trump announced that he would be intensifying efforts to deport migrants by expanding deportation efforts in cities run by Democrats. Trump called on federal agents to detain and deport undocumented immigrants in cities, “where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside.”
“These, and other such Cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens,” the president was armed with the proverbial gasoline can when he charged on his platform Truth Social. “These Radical Left Democrats are sick of mind, hate our Country, and actually want to destroy our Inner Cities — And they are doing a good job of it!”
The regular suspects have been feeding the conspiracy frenzy. InfoWars and its notorious host, Alex Jones, offered “Exclusive: Evidence Mounts that the Reported Minnesota Assassin Vance Luther Boelter is a Patsy Who is Being Framed to Cover Up a Larger False Flag Deep State Operation”
During the Thursday, June 12 edition, Jones predicted that an anti-MAGA false flag was just around the corner.
“Then, just days later, someone murdered a Democrat Minnesota politician and her husband after shooting and injuring Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman and his wife,” Jones said.
Among other wild, unmoored claims, Jones implied that Hortman was killed because she was considering switching parties and joining Republicans, and that Boelter was a “high-level” Walz appointee and was a “No Kings” protest organizer.
The Alex Jones Show is a circus of conspiracies. It is the longest-running online talk show that purports to report news and politics. Among many other conspiracy theories, Jones has alleged that the United States government concealed information about or outright falsified the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the Oklahoma City bombing, the September 11 attacks, and the 1969 Moon landing.
Jones declared bankruptcy after the Sandy Hook families won $1.3 billion in two defamation suits in Connecticut and Texas after Jones spread bogus conspiracy theories that the 2012 mass shooting at the Newtown, Conn., school was a hoax.
Right wing blogger Mike Cernovich shattered the bounds of sanity when he suggested that prominent Democrats were involved in the shootings, posting on X, “Did Tim Walz have her executed to send a message?”
Cernovich is a popular right-wing provocateur, known for generating far right conspiracy theories like #Pizzagate, where a Washington, D.C. pizza parlor was allegedly the center of Democratic efforts to kidnap and sexually assault children. Donald Trump Jr. tweeted that Cernovich deserved a Pulitzer Prize for the utterly debunked Pizzagate commentary.
Pelosi Attack
The vulgarity of the GOP responses were not unlike the comments that circulated soon after the brutal 2022 hammer attack on Nancy Pelosi’s 82-year-old husband, Paul. Right wing influencers and even trump, Musk and other leading Republicans gave credence to the theory that the attack was a “false flag” to smear Republicans or that Paul Pelosi had been engaged in a gay lover’s quarrel. The baseless claims were disproven by audio and video evidence and even Musk offered a brief apology.
Trump addressed the California GOP Party Fall Convention in September 2023 when he mocked Paul Pelosi. Trump said he would “stand up to crazy Nancy Pelosi“ if reelected president, asking supporters, “How’s her husband doing by the way?” and saying a “wall around her house” didn’t do a “good job” of protecting the 82-year-old from an intruder who fractured his skull with a hammer during a break-in last year, prompting laughter from the crowd.
Similarly, trump and Republicans were not deterred by scant knowledge about the man who was killed by law enforcement after he attempted to assassinate trump last year. The Republicans claimed that Democrats’ rhetoric played a role in the assassination attempt. Some even raised the possibility, with zero evidence, that law enforcement deliberately jeopardized trump. The slain assassin, Thomas Crooks, was later found to be a registered Republican.
One of the most dramatic and outrageous example of conspiracy leaping was the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by trump supporters. Right wingers, with trump in the lead, soon were pedaling the contention that the attacks were a patriotic gesture that was somehow the result of provocateurs or even FBI agents.
The atmosphere of potential and real political violence led Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, two months ago to reflect on fear of retaliation from the trump administration. Murkowski, one of trump’s most outspoken GOP opponents, said the fears are so pervasive that she is “oftentimes very anxious” to speak up out of fear of recrimination.
The growing dangers of political violence were again demonstrated just a day after the arrest in Minnesota, when officials in three states said they were investigating or prosecuting people for making threats against politicians.
In Texas, the authorities said that an armed man who had threatened to harm lawmakers at the State Capitol had been detained. In Georgia, a man was arraigned after prosecutors said he had threatened sexual violence against two United States senators. And in Virginia, a former Coast Guard officer was arrested and accused of making threats against President Trump online.