The Washington State Republican Party, along with a MAGA senator from Utah, jumped to spread false allegations that “Marxists” were responsible for assassinating a Democratic legislator in Minnesota.
A conspiracy theory, fabricated by a far-right news site, was reposted on “X” — the former Twitter — by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, as well as by Washington state Republican chair Jim Walsh and the Washington State GOP.
Under fire from Senate colleagues and others, Lee later issued a boilerplate statement decrying “senseless violence” and said he was “praying” for the victims. No such walk back has come from Walsh or the state party; nor have the posts been taken down. All the while, Walsh and the party have been flaying mainstream media for condoning violence and “running cover” for the Democrats.
A lone gunman, 57-year-old Vance Boelter, faces charges that he shot to death State Rep. Melissa Hortman and husband Mark at their suburban Minneapolis home; he had earlier wounded state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette, according to police. Both lawmakers have been influential members of the Minnesota Legislature. Hortman was an outspoken gun-safety advocate. Boelter had compiled a target list consisting of state legislators, U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, Planned Parenthood, and abortion-rights advocates.
As the gunman was on the loose, there arose a classic story of smear social media excess. It started in the Twin Cities and traveled west to be seized by Washington Republicans. After “No Kings” literature was found in the trunk of Boelter’s car — while he was on the lam — a right-wing site called @muse posted the claim that “Democratic activist Luther Boelter” (sic) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz “shot and killed fellow Democrats who voted to strip illegals of health care.”
The allegation was picked up by Utah’s Sen. Lee and Washington’s Republican Party, now a MAGA mouthpiece. “This is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way,” Lee wrote on “X.” He later termed the deaths: “Nightmare on Waltz Street,” misspelling the governor’s name.
Gov. Walz was the Democrats’ 2024 vice-presidential nominee and a close friend of Boelter’s victims. Walz described Boelter as “the face of evil.”
Washington GOP party chair Walsh, who also represents southwest Washington in the Legislature, chose to speculate and spread the false allegation. Referencing “some media coverage,” he posted: “These legislators had both recently broken with the left-wing leadership on votes to limit government benefits to illegal aliens.”
“The shootings appear to have been political retaliation,” added Walsh, a GOP state representative from Aberdeen. The state Republicans picked up on the conspiracy-spinning, sharing another @muse claim: “MINNESOTA ASSASSIN’S CAR FILLED WITH ‘NO KINGS’ FLYERS.”
“How will radical @Rep Jayapal justify this now?” Sneered the state GOP. Justify what? Two people are dead, two more lie seriously wounded. The accused assassin visited the Minneapolis-area homes of two other Democratic legislators, likely alive because they were not home. In the face of this violence, our state GOP is saying on X: “The Democrats are the party of death and destruction, aided and abetted by the propagandist media.” Civility be damned, and truth is pushed aside for fabrication.
We are, meanwhile, learning more about the accused assassin. A former roommate has told press and authorities that Boelter was having financial and emotional problems, was an intense abortion opponent, and a Trump voter.
The conspiracy stuff had one remote origin, since Boelter served on a 41-member Governor’s Workforce Development Board, appointed by then-Gov. Mark Dayton and reappointed by successor Walz. Hoffman was another member of the panel.
Fellow senators are shaming Sen. Lee, one of the chamber’s least influential members. On MSNBC, Klobuchar (a former prosecutor) promised she will have words with her Utah colleague: “What I’m going to tell him, this ain’t funny.” (Also not funny are the threats, the stalking, the killing, the targeting of a Democratic governor of Michigan and bullets nicking a former President on the campaign trail.)
Of Lee’s posts, said colleague Patty Murray: “This was a disgraceful and heinous comment by a U.S. Senator.” A relentless, sarcastic critic of Democrats, right-wing podcaster Brandi Kruse for once had the right response to Murray’s rebuke: “Agreed.”
This story also appears in the Cascadia Advocate.
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Connecting the dots, I’m pretty certain that Senator Lee’s posts reflect the group think and one-comeuppance characterizing on-line forums and chats. Recently it is reported that Netscape founder Marc Andreessen has been holding court in Signal group chat forums where many of the Silicon Valley Tech bros and Republican operatives discuss US policy.
The problem here is that inevitably a few become the loudest in the room and modest dissent or disagreement can cause one to risk being ostracized. It takes a strong ego to voice objections under the circumstances.
Anyone who has been on Xwitter, 4chan, or even the Seattle Times comment sections will note how quickly how ideological men, and yes they are always men, will resort to comments which are half-truths, ad hominem, and personal attacks in order to out do the next guy. It becomes a game of some sort.
So it should come as no surprise that Lee, who sees what Trump is doing, says what all his chat group peers are saying. Constituents matter less here than looking good to those in his social chat group.
Journalists need to pay attention here because our national policy is being dictated more by Signal chat groups than think tanks or lobbyists. I see it in what is being said about USAID and about energy and climate policy. We have a bunch of Libertarians and Free Market ideologues that only listen to themselves and the result will be some really bad policies.
Republicans adept at Big Lies in the Hitler tradition to advance the lawless new regime. Hope I don’t sound mean.