Vance Boelter is part of a deadly nonpartisan trend that needs to checked — now
Perhaps Vance Boelter's surface motives will turn out to be right-coded; perhaps they actually reflect some more personal grievances. No matter what, the prescription for the rest of us (left, right and center) remains the same either way: Tone down the political rhetoric.
Nabbed Sunday after a massive manhunt, the apparent assassin of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, also fingered for the dire wounding of a state senator and his wife, 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.
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But troubled minds and souls take cues from the world around them, and American political rhetoric has grown routinely too heated.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' call for 'all elected officials from across the political spectrum to conduct themselves responsibly' is entirely right — just as similar resolutions have been in their day.
Maybe this time the lesson will sink in?
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We'll admit, we see the violence problem as worse on the left, and can't help noticing that liberal lists of 15 years of such attacks often omit the Trump assassination attempt as well the Bernie Sanders fan's 2017 targeting of House Republicans at softball practice that put Rep. Steve Scalise at death's door.
But we don't deny that it sometimes comes from the right, too.
Don't blame the Internet; not long ago the complaints were about cable-TV and talk radio fanning the flames.
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There was a time not too long ago when Americans could disagree without being disagreeable, when we didn't treat every political dispute as an apocalyptic battle between good and evil.
The nation needs most people on both sides of the great divide to face the truth, and do better, or it'll only get worse.
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35 minutes ago
Virginia Democrats set to pick nominees in closely watched 2025 primaries
RICHMOND, Va. -- Virginia Democrats are set on Tuesday to pick their nominees for lieutenant governor and attorney general, rounding out the statewide ticket and setting the stage for a bellwether election later this year. Most of the nominees slated to be at the top of the November ticket have already been picked, and Republicans aren't even having a statewide primary. In the race for governor, Democrat Abigail Spanberger, whose candidacy thwarted prospective primary challengers, will go up against Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears — the only Republican who qualified for the ballot. Republicans have also solidified nominees for lieutenant governor and attorney general. Virginia is one of two states that host statewide elections the year after a presidential election — New Jersey is the other — and the races are typically seen as referendums on the party in power before Congress heads into midterm elections. Analysts will be looking for clues in both states about voter sentiment with President Donald Trump back in the Oval Office and Republicans controlling power in Washington. Democrats' hold on Virginia has slipped in recent years, moving it close to swing-state status nationally. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin beat former Gov. Terry McAuliffe in 2021. And although Democrats narrowly gained back complete control of the legislature in a 2023 election, then-Vice President Kamala Harris won Virginia last year by less than six points, compared to former President Joe Biden's 10-point lead in 2020. Still, Democrats have history on their side: The party of the sitting president typically suffers defeat in Virginia's statewide races. And considering Trump has never won the state, Democrats are probably better positioned to make gains once their ticket solidifies. The six Democrats vying to be Virginia's next lieutenant governor aren't all that different on the issues: They support rights to abortion, a living wage, affordable housing and accessible health care. They also share similar criticisms of Trump. The candidates notably fracture along regional lines, and distinctions emerge in what they have emphasized in stump speeches along the campaign trail. Former Richmond City Mayor Levar Stoney has touted his ties to the Democratic Party and experience working under former Govs. Mark Warner and Terry McAuliffe. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg endorsed his campaign in June. State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi is also from the Richmond area, representing part of the city and suburbs. Hashmi has pushed reproductive health in her bid and has been endorsed by abortion rights political action committees. Virginia Sen. Aaron Rouse, from Virginia Beach with ties to southwest Virginia, has also highlighted his legislative accomplishments. Prince William County School Board Chair Barbur Lateef, former federal prosecutor Victor Salgado and retired U.S. Department of Labor worker Alex Bastani are from northern Virginia. Lateef, an eye surgeon, has honed in on education and health care. Salgado has stressed the importance of strengthening democracy, and Bastani has emphasized labor rights. Former Del. Jay Jones and Henrico County Commonwealth's Attorney Shannon Taylor are seeking to be the next attorney general. Jones, who once represented Norfolk in the House of Delegates, comes from a long line of Hampton Roads politicians. His father was also a delegate, and his grandfather was the first Black member of the Norfolk School Board. Jones previously ran for attorney general in 2021 but lost the primary to Democratic incumbent Mark Herring. Taylor has served more than a decade as the top prosecutor in the suburbs outside Richmond after flipping the open seat in 2011. Notable cases include when she was appointed special prosecutor in the case of the torch-carrying mob in the fatal 2017 Unite the Right white supremacist riot. She took one of the torch carriers to trial, records show, but the case was dismissed after a hung verdict. Only one Republican candidate in each statewide contest is advancing to the ballot. Earle-Sears became the gubernatorial nominee after Republicans Dave LaRock and Amanda Chase failed to collect enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. Both LaRock and Chase initially challenged Earle-Sears for not being fully aligned with Trump. Conservative talk-radio host John Reid became the de facto nominee for lieutenant governor after his primary opponent left the race, and despite intraparty quarreling over whether he was tied to a social media account reposting pornography. Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares sailed to his spot on the ballot after announcing his reelection bid. All 100 seats of the House of Delegates are up for election in November, and some nomination contests are taking place in Virginia's more competitive districts. Democrats May Nivar and Andrew Schear are racing to take on Republican incumbent Del. David Owen in a Richmond-area district that House liberals are vying to flip. Three Democrats are running to battle Republican Del. Carrie Coyner in a Petersburg-area district. Two Republicans and two Democrats will have separate primaries to fill a competitive seat in the Chesapeake area, which opened after Republican Rep. Baxter Ennis announced his retirement. ___
35 minutes ago
Congress is holding emergency briefings on security after Minnesota shootings
WASHINGTON -- Members of Congress will attend emergency briefings this week after the murder of a Minnesota state lawmaker brought renewed fears — and stoked existing partisan tensions — over the security of federal lawmakers when in Washington and at home. The suspect in the attack had dozens of federal lawmakers listed in his writings, in addition to the state lawmakers and others he allegedly targeted. The man is accused of shooting and killing former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in their home early Saturday in the northern Minneapolis suburbs and wounding another lawmaker and his wife at their home. The shootings come after credible threats to members of Congress have more than doubled in the last decade, the troubling tally of an era that has been marked by a string of violent attacks against lawmakers and their families. In 2011, Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords was shot and wounded at an event in her Arizona district. In 2017, Republican Rep. Steve Scalise was shot and wounded as he practiced for a congressional baseball game with other GOP lawmakers near Washington. In 2022, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband Paul was attacked in his home by a man who broke into their San Francisco home. And in 2024, two different men tried to assassinate Donald Trump during his presidential campaign. All four survived, some with serious injuries. But those attacks, among others and many close calls for members of both parties, have rattled lawmakers and raised recurring questions about whether they have enough security — and whether they can ever be truly safe in their jobs. 'I don't have a solution to this problem right now,' said Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith, a friend of Hortman's who received increased security after the attack. 'I just see so clearly that this current state of play is not sustainable.' Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy said lawmakers are 'clearly at the point where we have to adjust the options available to us.' The U.S. Capitol Police's threat assessment section investigated 9,474 'concerning statements and direct threats' against members of Congress last year, the highest number since 2021, the year that the Capitol was attacked by Trump's supporters after he tried to overturn his 2020 presidential election defeat. In 2017, there were 3,939 investigated threats, the Capitol Police said. While members of Congress may be high-profile, they do have some resources available that might not be available to state and local lawmakers, said Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, who was a member of the South Dakota state Senate for 10 years before he was the state's governor. In the state legislature, 'it just wasn't feasible all the time' to have increased security, Rounds said. As threats have increased, members of Congress have had access to new funding to add security at their personal homes. But it is unclear how many have used it and whether there is enough money to keep lawmakers truly safe. 'Resources should not be the reason that a U.S. senator or congressman gets killed,' Murphy said. Instead of bringing lawmakers together, the Minnesota shootings have created new internal tensions. Smith on Monday confronted one of her fellow senators, Utah Republican Mike Lee, for a series of posts on X over the weekend. One mocked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat who ran for vice president last year. Another post said of the murders, 'This is what happens when Marxists don't get their way.' Friends and former colleagues interviewed by The Associated Press described Vance Luther Boelter, the man accused of assassinating Hortman and her husband, as a devout Christian who attended an evangelical church and went to campaign rallies for Trump. Records show Boelter registered to vote as a Republican while living in Oklahoma in 2004 before moving to Minnesota, where voters don't list party affiliation. Smith talked to Lee outside a GOP conference meeting as soon as she arrived in Washington on Monday. 'I would say he seemed surprised to be confronted,' she told reporters afterward. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer also called out Lee's posts on the Senate floor, saying that for him to 'fan the flames of division with falsities, while the killer was still on the loose, is deeply irresponsible. He should take his posts down and immediately apologize to the families of the victims.' Lee's office did not respond to a request for comment. Lawmakers were already on edge before the shootings, which came less than two days after Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla was forcibly removed from a press conference with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in California. Officers restrained Padilla and put him on the ground. Angry Democratic senators immediately took to the Senate floor Thursday afternoon to denounce Padilla's treatment. 'What was really hard for me to see was that a member of this body was driven to his knees and made to kneel before authorities,' said New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker. 'This is a test. This is a crossroads.' At the briefing Tuesday, Senate Democrats say they plan to ask security officials, as well as Republican leadership, about Padilla's removal from the press conference as well as their protection against outside threats. 'I certainly hope to hear leadership responding in a profound way,' said New Mexico Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, a Democrat. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., who said she had been informed that her name was also on the suspect's list, said she wanted to hear recommendations at the briefing on how to improve security. 'And we can take those recommendations,' Baldwin said. 'But I think, both with the president and his administration and with members of Congress, that we need to bring the temperature down. There's no place for political violence ever. And the rhetoric — words matter.'
New York Post
35 minutes ago
- New York Post
Trump administration weighs adding 36 countries to travel ban, memo says
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