Credit where credit is due: our two local MAGA congressman, Ben Cline and John McGuire, issued statements condemning the weekend shootings of two Minnesota Democratic Party lawmakers and their spouses.
I know, it’s a low bar, but still, in this environment, when you see, for instance, Utah Sen. Mike Lee, a MAGA Republican, trolling the two people who were killed – former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark – and the two who survived a hail of bullets, State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette – showing basic decency is suddenly man bites dog.
“The news coming out of Minnesota is terrible,” Cline, who represents the Sixth District, west of the Blue Ridge, basically the I-81 corridor between Winchester and the Roanoke area, posted to his socials on Saturday, as details of the shootings were becoming widely known.
“We condemn all acts of political violence, and the person responsible for this attack must be brought to justice. Please keep the victims and all the people of Minnesota in your prayers,” Cline wrote.
“Evil does exist. I am saddened to hear of the tragedy in Minnesota,” McGuire, who represents the Fifth District, east of the Blue Ridge, essentially the Route 29 corridor from Albemarle County to the North Carolina border, posted, also on Saturday.
“Stay vigilant and report suspicious activity. We are praying for the families and those impacted by this horrible tragedy. Political violence is wrong and must not be tolerated,” McGuire wrote.
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The assassin, an evangelical MAGA wannabe cop named Vance Boelter, 57, was arrested late Sunday night not far from his home in Green Isle, Minn., about an hour southwest of Minneapolis.
Officials revealed at a Monday press conference that Boelter, who gained entry into his victims’ homes by posing as a cop, had also visited the homes of two other state lawmakers in the northwest suburbs of Minneapolis between the shooting incidents.
The lawmakers were not named, but it was reported that Boelter’s first stop after the shooting at the Hoffman residence in Champlin was at the home of a member of the House of Representatives in Maple Grove, which is represented by two House members, one a Republican, Kristin Robbins, the second a Democrat, Kristin Bahner.
It’s fair to assume that Bahner was the target, but fortunately for whichever Kristin it was – it was the Democrat – the family was not home, so Boelter made his way to the home of a state senator in New Hope.
State Sen. Ann Rest, a Democrat from New Hope, is now publicly acknowledging that she has “been made aware that the shooting suspect was parked near my home early Saturday morning.”
A police officer who had been dispatched to the senator’s home after the shooting at the Hoffman residence saw Boelter’s vehicle parked down the street from the Rest home, and thinking he was a fellow officer at the location to provide security, attempted to make contact with him, but he didn’t respond, and later drove off, as we know now, headed to the Hortman residence in Brooklyn Park.
As word spread throughout the law enforcement community in the Minneapolis suburbs about the Hoffman shootings, officers were dispatched to the Hortman residence, and arrived in time to see Boelter at the front door, then firing shots into the home before escaping.
The Hortmans were dead at the scene.
Boelter fled on foot, made his way to Minneapolis, reportedly paid cash for an e-bike and a used car, and made his way back home to Green Isle – advising his wife by text in the meantime that she shouldn’t be home when the cops came for him.
His wife was later stopped by police in a car with two handguns, their passports and $10,000 in cash, but she has not been charged in connection with the assassinations.
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Donald Trump’s first comment on the shootings was a statement that he almost certainly had nothing to do with – “Such horrific violence will not be tolerated in the United States of America. God Bless the great people of Minnesota, a truly great place,” he posted on his socials.
His real feelings would come out later when he was asked by an interviewer if he planned to call Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat who was the party’s vice-presidential nominee last year, to express his condolences.
“I think he’s a terrible governor. I think he’s a grossly incompetent person. But I may, I may call him,” Trump said.
Trump’s former and soon-to-be again bestie Elon Musk, meanwhile, blamed the “far left” for the assassinations, which is par for the course for the king of disinformation.
As much as I’d like to see our guys, Cline and McGuire, add to their condemnations a throaty voice of dissent to the sentiments of Trump and Musk, at least they didn’t pull a Mike Lee and use the politically motivated brutal murders as fodder for memes.
Kudos, I guess.
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Chris Graham
