Tag: democratic party
Right-Wing Propaganda Spins Up Fake Profile Of Minnesota Assassin

Right-Wing Propaganda Spins Up Fake Profile Of Minnesota Assassin

In the early hours of June 14, Vance Boelter allegedly shot two Minnesota Democratic state lawmakers in their homes while impersonating law enforcement — Rep. Melissa Hortman and Sen. John Hoffman, along with their spouses. Hortman and her husband were killed, and Hoffman and his wife are recovering from their injuries. While the public waited for more information about the suspect and his motives, right-wing media began to speculate wildly about Boelter, spinning a false narrative that he was a leftist figure aligned with Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz.

The evidence for this theory is scarce: Conservative media suggested Boelter killed Hortman for breaking from the Democrats on a recent vote to give undocumented immigrants health care. Right-wing media also referenced the flyers from Saturday’s “No Kings” protest that were found in the suspect’s vehicle and pointed to the fact that Boelter was appointed by Walz to a bipartisan working group in 2019, with one figure saying that “he was friends with Walz” and another claiming the governor is “directly connected to a domestic terrorist.” Some even speculated that Walz put a “political hit” out on the lawmakers in retaliation for their vote — even as reports surfaced that the governor himself was on a list of targets found in the suspect’s vehicle — and demanded that someone “investigate.” The narrative snowballed over the weekend, culminating in a sick post from Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), which suggested that the shooter was a “Marxist.”

As more information surfaced, a very different picture emerged: The suspect left behind a “hit list” of 70 targets, including abortion providers and other Minnesota Democrats. Walz, U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, Rep. Ilhan Omar, and state Attorney General Keith Ellison were all on the list. The suspect’s friend described him as a supporter of Trump who enjoyed watching Alex Jones’ Infowars and said that Boelter “would be offended if anyone called him a Democrat.” Wiredreported that Boelter is linked to evangelical ministries and is “president of Revoformation Ministries.” The report also said that the suspect has preached against abortion and the LGBTQ community. Additionally, he “liked” the right-wing legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom on Facebook.

    By the time the actual facts emerged, the right’s reckless and conspiratorial speculation had done its job, muddying the waters with misinformation claiming the shooter was a left-wing associate of Walz, which quickly spread across social media.

    • Alec Lace of The Alec Lace Show drew the connection to Hortman’s vote on undocumented immigrants in a 12:10 p.m. ET tweet on Saturday. “Melissa Hortman sounded fearful after voting to repeal healthcare for illegal aliens. Almost as if she knew that her base would become unhinged. She and her husband were tragically shot and killed. A targeted attack, per Gov. Walz. Was her vote the motive?” [Twitter/X, 6/14/25]
    • At 12:50 p.m. ET on Saturday, TheBlaze’s Julio Rosas posted that the shooter was “appointed to the Governor’s Workforce Development Board in 2019 by Gov. Tim Walz.” He wrote:“BREAKING: I'm told by a police source in Minnesota the suspect in the shootings of MN state lawmakers is Vance Luther Boelter. It appears it is the same Boelter who was appointed to the Governor’s Workforce Development Board in 2019 by Gov. Tim Walz. He appointed to the Governor's Workforce Development Council in 2016 by then-Gov. Mark Dayton.” [Twitter/X, 6/14/25]
    • Trump ally Laura Loomer called for Walz to be “detained by the FBI and interrogated.” She wrote, “The media wants to gaslight you into thinking the shooter in Minnesota is a Trump supporter. He was appointed by Walz. He was friends with Walz. And he had NO KINGS flyers in his car. No Kings is a violent group and it’s no surprise the shooting took place the day the NO KINGS protests kicked off across the country. The organizers of NO KINGS and @GovTimWalz need to be detained by the FBI and interrogated.” [Twitter/X, 6/14/25]
    • Right-wing commentator Nick Sortor posted that the shooter goes “WAY back” with Walz and that their connections must be investigated. He wrote: “WTF? It seems ass*ssin Vance Boulter’s wife, Jenny, ALSO worked for Tim Walz. She worked for him in Washington, DC in the early 2010s while he was a Congressman. Their connections to Walz go WAY back! Must investigate!” [Twitter/X, 6/14/25]
    • Conservative personality Dinesh D’Souza posted about the “No Kings” flyers. Along with an image of the flyers, he wrote: “This photo is from inside the vehicle of the suspect in the targeted killing of two Democratic officials who were opposed to the Left’s free health care for illegals scheme.” [Twitter/X, 6/14/25]
    • Right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson questioned whether the shooting is a “massive false flag.” He added that “nothing seems to make sense” and that what happened is “very strange and very dark and very evil.” [YouTube, The Benny Show, 6/16/25]
    • Right-wing troll Mike Cernovich claimed that Walz is a “terrorist” and asked if he “activate[d] an assassin against a political rival. He wrote, “Did Tim Walz activate an assassin against a political rival who voted against him plan to give illegal immigrants free healthcare?” Cernovich called Walz a “terrorist” and said that he is “directly connected to a domestic terrorist, that is confirmed, the only question is whether Tim Walz himself ordered the political hit against a rival who voted against Walz’s plan to give free healthcare to illegals.” [Twitter/X, 6/14/25, 6/14/25, 6/14/25]
    • Infowars’ Alex Jones said that the shooting “has got the signs of setup all over it,” suggesting Boelter will be found dead. He continued to suggest that the shooting was a “false flag.” Jones said he would be “very surprised if they catch him in the manhunt now. No, he’s dead in a barn somewhere.” (Boelter was caught and charged Sunday night.) [Infowars, The Alex Jones Show, 6/15/25; Minnesota Star Tribune, 6/16/25]
    • Jones also said, “The commies are planning their uprising.” [Infowars, The Alex Jones Show, 6/15/25]
    • A user on X received 53 million views on a post that claimed that “the left has become a full blown domestic terrorist organization.” TheBlaze columnist Auron MacIntyre replied, adding that “until the GOP is ready to go after the left the way the Democrats go after the right, progressive terrorists will continue to kill Americas.” [Twitter/X, 6/14/25, 6/14/25]
    • The New York Post further fanned the flames with the headline “Former appointee of Tim Walz sought in ‘politically motivated assassination’ of lawmaker and husband in creepy mask.” Rupert Murdoch’s outlet also wrote that “officials were mum on the motives — though it came just five days after Hortman sided with Republican leaders as the lone Democrat to cut access to state health benefits for illegal immigrants in the North Star State.” [New York Post, 6/14/25]
    • Trump ally Charlie Kirk blamed “No Kings” protests for the “violent political radicalization.” He wrote:“Tim Walz has reportedly backed out, but he was slated to headline the Twin Cities No Kings ‘protest’ today. Total shocker that smearing a duly-elected president who won an overwhelming electoral mandate as a fascist or a king leads to violent political radicalization.” [Twitter/X, 6/14/25]
    • Rumble host Viva Frei falsely claimed that the shooter’s wife, Jenny, interned for Walz and called the shooter a “longtime associate of Tim Walz.” In reality, a Walz spokesperson said the Jennifer Boelter who interned for Walz is a different person entirely.[Twitter/X, 6/14/25; Minnesota Star Tribune, 6/15/25]
    • X user Rod D. Martin claimed without evidence: “BREAKING: Tim Walz deletes all posts mentioning Vance Boelter.” The post earned over 700,000 views. [Twitter/X, 6/15/25]
    • On Newsmax, host Lidia Curanaj framed the story as “violence we are seeing from the left” and called the shooter a “Democrat.” She claimed that people said, “his must be some right-wing extremism. Then we come to find out this is a Tim Walz appointee. This is a Democrat. Talk to me about that, about the violence that we are seeing from the left.” Her guest, podcaster Stuart Kaplan, said that “Democrats are failing to really come out and condemn and attempt to try to quell the violence that clearly has been percolating for some period of time.” Curanaj also brought up that Hortman “voted against health care for illegal aliens” before pivoting to “the media’s role in this.” Kaplan said there is “too much of a division with respect to what is truth and then what we have been selling as fiction” and that “it is becoming more and more irresponsible to kind of fan these flames.” [Newsmax, Sunday Agenda, 6/15/25]
    • On Fox & Friends Weekend, guest host Charles Hurt pointed out that Hortman “had voted against a priority of many Democrats.” His guest, Paul Mauro, called the shooter’s political background “murky” and claimed that the shooter’s wife “was apparently an intern for Tim Walz.” Hurt also brought up the “No Kings” flyers and the hit list, though he failed to specify the targets of the hit list. [Fox News, Fox & Friends Weekend, 6/15/25]
    • Far-right conspiracy theorist Ann Vandersteel posted: “The man who just assassinated Democrat Rep. Melissa Hortman is also HIMSELF A DEMOCRAT.” She added, “So to be clear: Vance Luther Boelter was absolutely NOT MAGA. We all need to make that clear before the lying ALPHABET MEDIA starts their anti-Trump spin.” [Twitter/X, 6/14/25; Media Matters, 7/26/24]
    • QAnon conspiracy theorist Jacob Creech, who goes by “Clandestine” on social media, claimed that the shooter is a “crazy Democrat.” He added, “This is the product of the endless violent rhetoric from the Dems/MSM. The Dems/MSM are terrorists.” [Twitter/X, 6/14/25; CBC, 4/10/22]
    • QAnon conspiracy theorist Pepe Deluxe posted: “The victims voted against insurance for illegals. Probably a coincidence.” [Twitter/X, 6/14/25; Media Matters, 10/29/24]
    • Far-right streamer Woke Societies posted: “Remember that study that came out that the Left is adopting assassination culture more and more per year? Welp, it’s playing out right before our eyes.” [Twitter/X, 6/14/25]

    Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

    J.D. Vance

    Official Genealogy Report Explodes Vance's 'Scots-Irish Hillbilly" Claim

    A “trawl of genealogy records” has called into question Vice President JD Vance’s self-declared status as a “Scots-Irish hillbilly at heart,” the New York Times reports.

    Vance, in his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, declared, “To understand me, you must understand that I am a Scots-Irish ­hillbilly at heart.”

    But, according to a report commissioned by a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) minister, Vance lacks “‘a conclusive family link’ to Northern Ireland.” The research was detailed in a “24-page dossier titled ‘The Family Footsteps of JD Vance,’” The Times reports.

    As the Times notes, “Gordon Lyons, the Northern Ireland minister for communities, had been ­hoping to present a copy of the report personally to Vance over the St Patrick’s Day period in Washington DC.”

    According to the Times, "as Scots-Irish, or Ulster-Scots, [Vance’s] ­family history would be tied directly to plantation-era Scots settlers whose descendants, generations after arrival in Ireland, set out for America.”

    “Emails obtained via a freedom of information request show that in February Lyons’s office was advised that “it has not been possible to establish conclusive proof of a direct Vance link back to Ulster at this stage,” the report adds.

    Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

    Imitating Foreign Despots, Trump Aims To Shut Democrats' ActBlue Site

    Imitating Foreign Despots, Trump Aims To Shut Democrats' ActBlue Site

    President Donald Trump is set to sign a presidential memorandum Thursday targeting ActBlue, the fundraising platform that powers Democratic campaigns and causes. This is Trump’s latest attempt to neuter political opposition.

    It's unclear what exactly the memorandum will do, but according to Politico, it claims that ActBlue accepts foreign contributions—which the platform vehemently denies.

    Of course, Trump himself has been hit with allegations of accepting Russian bribes. In fact, a political consultant who worked for Great America PAC, which backed Trump’s 2016 campaign, was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2023 for illegally accepting Russian contributions.

    What’s more, Trump is currently taking in millions from cryptocurrency investors, who are buying his meme coin for a chance to meet with Trump. It’s a blatantly corrupt pay-to-play effort, in which foreigners could be personally funneling money to Trump.

    “The Trump coin scam is the most brazenly corrupt thing a President has ever done. Not close,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut wrote on X.

    Similarly, Massachusetts Democrats Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Jake Auchincloss joined together to demand an investigation into Trump’s meme coin, though it’s unlikely that the Department of Justice run by the nakedly partisan Pam Bondi would actually prosecute.

    “Anyone, including the leaders of hostile nations, can covertly buy these coins, raising the specter of uninhibited and untraceable foreign influence over the President of the United States, all while President Trump’s supporters are left to shoulder the risk of investing in $TRUMP and $MELANIA,” they wrote in a letter in January.

    And while ActBlue is being targeted by Trump’s memorandum, the Republican fundraising platform WinRed will seemingly go unscathed, despite its many actual issues—including coming under fire after the 2020 election for tricking people into unknowingly making recurrent donations to Trump’s campaign.

    But this despotic attack against what Trump deems a “political enemy” is nothing new.

    For example, Trump has stripped Big Law firms of their security clearances and government contracts because they employed lawyers who have investigated him or have sued to block Trump’s illegal actions. As a result, firms have halted pro bono work that might anger Trump.

    ActBlue raises massive amounts of money for Democrats and Democratic causes, taking in nearly $500 million in 2025 alone. And its lawyers have been gearing up for a fight against Trump.

    “Every one of our clients is concerned about being arbitrarily targeted by the Trump administration. We are going to great lengths to help clients prepare for or defend themselves,” said Ezra Reese, political law chair at Elias Law Group, which represents many Democrats and Democratic organizations.

    And ActBlue says that it will not be scared into submission by Trump's bullying.

    "Nothing will deter or interrupt ActBlue’s mission and work to enable millions of Americans to participate in our democracy," ActBlue President and CEO Regina Wallace-Jones wrote in an email to Democrats.

    "There is an ongoing and persistent effort to weaken the confidence of the American people in what’s possible,” she added. “This is the next version of ‘the big lie.’”

    Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

    Gay Valimont

    Defeated Democrats Slash GOP Margins By Half In Florida Special Elections

    While Democrats lost both special Congressional elections in Florida, the party clearly overperformed, narrowing the margins considerably in deep-red districts. The Republican victories, expected by most analysts, gave some relief to GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has struggled to pass legislation with a tiny majority.

    In Florida’s Sixth District, Republican Randy Fine defeated his Democratic opponent Josh Weil by 14 points. While that appears to be a comfortable victory, that is less than half the margin tallied by the Republicans last fall, when President Donald Trump and Mike Waltz, the current national security adviser who previously held that seat, won by over 30 points.

    Even more troubling to the GOP was Democrat Gay Valimont’s performance in Florida’s First Congressional District, where she lost to Republican Jimmy Patronis. The Republican margin there was 14.8 points, only five months after Trump won the same district by 37 points. In Florida too, Democrats flipped a major Trump county. Valimont won Escambia County -- where Trump won by nearly 20 points last November -- by just over three points on Tuesday.

    “When Democrats are outperforming or winning, it’s a big psychological boost in a time when Democrats are feeling pretty low,” noted Democratic pollster John Anzalone in a New York Times interview. “They’re going to be dealing with the political environment that Trump has created, which is not good right now for Republicans.”

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