As I'm writing this, the suspect in the apparently targeted shootings of two Democratic
legislators and their spouses in Minnesota, Vance Luther Boelter, has recently been captured and arrested,
after a two-day multi-state manhunt that was reported to be the
largest manhunt in Minnesota's history. Actually, given the
details that had emerged about his volatile and troubled life,
I was surprised he was found alive; I thought it very possible
that he would take his own life, but he was captured near his
farm in Green Isle, Minnesota.
People on both sides of the great American
political divide seem to agree that the shootings, which killed
Representative and Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her
husband and gravely injured Senator John Hoffman and his wife,
were shocking and tragic and horrifying. (Boelter even shot the Hortmans' dog, Gilbert,
who later had to be euthanized due to the severity of his
injuries.)
There also seems to be a consensus that the shootings were
politically motivated.
It should come as no surprise, however, that while
there's general agreement that the shootings were politically
motivated, the two sides have sharply differing views of the
suspect's actual political affiliation and therefore his motives.
The American Reich -- again, no surprise here -- is spinning it
as being totally the fault of the Democrats/left, and they are
claiming that suspect Boelter is a Democrat/left winger because:
- He served as a governor appointee on the
Governor's Workforce Development program under two
Democratic governors, Governor Tim Walz and his
predecessor, Governor Mark Dayton.
- The lawmaker who died, Melissa Hortman,
voted with House republican lawmakers on a budget bill
that removed MinnesotaCare health coverage for
undocumented immigrant adults. (However, the senator who
was injured, John Hoffman, had actually voted against
removing that access; more about that in a little while.)
- A stack of small handwritten signs that
simply said, "No Kings" was found in a vehicle
that Boelter left at one of the crime scenes when he fled
law enforcement officers. (That's according to a widely
shared photo; some reports say that there were [also]
flyers about a local No Kings event or events.)
One person on a Facebook thread I saw wrote,
"This is yet another example of violent hateful Democrats
using VIOLENCE against anyone who disagrees with them
politically."
Another right-wing commentator blamed the shootings on
"left-wing hysteria."
And a devout Trumpster who happens to be a Facebook friend of
mine wrote on his timeline:
When I said pretty soon we would start
to see Democrats start turning on each other, I didn’t
actually mean they would resort to assassinating each other
just for voting with Republicans on a single bill.
But if you don’t understand that the Democrat party is full
blown EVIL by now, then God help you.
No one should act surprised by the details coming out of
Minnesota, where a Gov Tim Walz political appointee gunned
down two fellow Democrats and their spouses, while
impersonating a police officer.
You don’t have to be Nostradamus to have seen this coming.
The only thing surprising is that they didn’t try to frame
a Republican…
"JEEZUS Christ on a bicycle!" as my late husband Ron used to say when astounded by
some absurdity or sheer stupidity.
Most of the comments to my friend's Dems-are-evil
Facebook thread were supportive of the original post, with one
person suggesting that the Democrats should officially be
declared domestic terrorists. My friend Facebook-liked that comment.
One lone person dissented by presenting some facts that are actually known about
Boelter, but my friend just doubled down on insistence that
Boelter, while probably having been a republican many years ago,
as well as an evangelical Christian, is no longer either of those
things and has become a Democrat. Then for good measure my friend
attacked the dissenter about the latter's own political leanings.
This story is still developing, and even though he's now in
custody, we still don't have a completely clear picture of
Boelter's motives. Investigators probably have had a better idea
than the rest of us do, but they had mostly been keeping
tight-lipped about it during the manhunt, and even now have
refrained from sharing certain details. "Don't jump to
conclusions," we've been told over and over by various
spokespeople in the know.
But I think it is safe to say that there is a growing mountain of
evidence that Boelter was not in fact a Democrat bent on
murdering fellow Democrats for siding with republicans on a
single bill -- and that he was, instead, fueled by
"Christian" right-wing zeal and forced-birth fascism.
Some facts that muddy the
Reich-wing narrative
Reich-wing talking point number 1. Boelter
was an appointee of two different Democratic governors,
the most recent being Tim Walz, so that "proves" he's a
Democrat.
As soon as the suspect was named, the Reich-wing media and even
many of the supposedly mainstream/moderate media began bleating
headlines describing Boelter as a "Tim Walz appointee"
or some similar description. While this is technically true, it
is grossly misleading in the contexts in which it has been
presented by those who are trying to prove that Boelter is a
Democrat and/or a political ally of Walz. (Some conspiranoids
have even claimed that it was Walz who sent Boelter on his deadly
mission.)
It's true that Boelter served for a couple of years on the
Minnesota governor's Workforce Development Council under Governor
Mark Dayton, a Democrat, who appointed him in 2016. Later the
program was renamed the Workforce Development Board, and Governor
Tim Walz, another Democrat, appointed Boelter to that board in
2019.
Here is a link to a document listing Boelter's 2019 appointment to the
board. The relevant section on the
Governor's Workforce Development Board begins on page 199 of this
475-page document. The section begins with a detailed description
of the purpose of the board and a precise breakdown of powers and
duties, member restrictions, and other pertinent information.
Boelter, whose name appears on page 202, is identified as a
"Business Member." And his political affiliation?
"No party preference." His term ended in January 2023.
The important point is that the Workforce
program is bipartisan, or more accurately, nonpartisan. I
will let my Bing CoPilot AI buddy 'splain it:
[That board] is designed to be
bipartisan and includes members from across the political and
professional spectrum. Appointments often reflect a
person’s industry experience or community involvement, not
necessarily their political affiliation. In fact, Boelter’s
background includes private security work, international
business ventures, and affiliations that don’t clearly
align with any one party.
And the emerging details of the case—like the manifesto
found in his vehicle listing dozens of targets, including
abortion providers and Democratic lawmakers—suggest a far
more complex and disturbing motive.
Couple of points here regarding that
AI-generated info, which is from a "conversation" I had
with CoPilot on June 14, shortly after Boelter had been named as
the suspect. The AI response was drawing on widespread online
reports that were available at that time regarding
Boelter's career history, but later reports indicated that
Boelter had exaggerated or outright lied about some of his C.V., particularly the parts
about security work (see section below, regarding "Fantasy
careers..." etc.). Still, the point remains valid that
Boelter's work background doesn't strongly indicate political
party alignment one way or the other.
Secondly, the target lists found in Boelter's vehicle were,
according to several later reports, not part of a
"manifesto" per se; the AI response drew from existing
early reports that referred to the presence of a manifesto. But
again, the basic point is valid: those lists do not indicate that
Boelter is a Democrat. They're much more indicative that he loathes Democrats.
Boelter's appointments to Minnesota's Workforce
Development program under two Democratic governors appears to
have been based not on his political leanings but primarily on
his role as a member of the business community, which would make
sense, given that the program is, after all, focused on making
improvements to Minnesota's workforce. There's no indication that
he had much if any interaction with the governors themselves, and
certainly no evidence that he was a staunch political ally of
either.
Reich-wing talking point number 2. Shortly
before her death, Representative Melissa Hortman had voted with
republican lawmakers to take healthcare access away from
"illegals," and Boelter was angry because he felt that
she had betrayed the Democratic party line.
MAGA has been all over this, praising
Representative Hortman's courage for standing up against her evil
party and then paying the ultimate price for doing so. The
provision in the budget bill for which Hortman voted in accord
with her republican colleagues took MinnesotaCare health coverage
away from undocumented people over the age of 18.
The very sensible arguments made in favor of keeping this
coverage was that it would ultimately be less expensive for
Minnesotans, since the uninsured tend to go to eye-poppingly
expensive hospital emergency rooms for their care, and they can't
pay for those trips, but somebody has to pay, and that will cost
the state more in the long term. But the republicans were having
none of these arguments.
Hortman clearly agonized over this vote, which was an aberration
from her usual voting pattern. It was a compromise she felt that
she was forced to make, however, in order to pass the larger
budget bill and prevent a partial state government shutdown. The
vote left her and several of her Democratic colleagues in tears.
She acknowledged that this bill was going to hurt many
people. It was obvious that she felt
horrible about it (though of course MAGA has spun her tearful
statements as an expression not of sadness for the people being
hurt, but as fear for her life as a result of going against her
party). But she explained that it was clear to her that her
republican colleagues' top priority was to strip healthcare
rights from undocumented adult immigrants, and they refused to
budge at all on that matter.
Should she have held out anyway? That's open to debate, but the
point is that she's not some kind of evil DINO (Democrat in Name
Only). And even if that had been the case... with all due respect
(emphasis on the word "due") to my Facebook friend
quoted above, Democrats are not in the habit of offing each other
over disagreements, even passionate disagreements. Dems tend to
deal with their offending colleagues by canceling them or
threatening to primary them or shaming them into resigning.
Also -- and this bears repeating -- despite some early Reich-wing
narratives to the contrary, Senator John Hoffman, another one of
Boelter's shooting victims, did not vote with Senate
republicans on this matter. He remained a steadfast supporter of
retaining healthcare access for the immigrants in question. So if
Boelter supposedly shot Hortman for "betrayal" of
Democratic party principles, due to her vote that would hurt some
immigrants, why would he also want to kill Hoffman, who stood
firm for the rights of those same immigrants?
The story gets both more complicated and possibly
more simple as additional details are released about Boelter's
spree on the morning of June 14, 2025. It has now come out that
in addition to visiting the Hoffman and Hortman homes, he also visited the homes of two other legislators. The first would-be target, Representative Kristin Bahner,
one of Representative Hortman's colleagues, was not at her Maple
Grove home because her family was on vacation. Unlike Hortman,
Representative Bahner did not vote with House
republicans on the controversial budget bill.
The other, Senator Ann Rest of New Hope,
was spared due to the fact that cops had already been alerted
regarding Boelter's previous activity, and they were in the area.
Senator Rest did vote with her republican Senate colleagues
on the budget bill.
It's also important to note that like Hortman and Hoffman, both Ann Rest and Kristin Bahner
are strong supporters of abortion rights and reproductive
freedom.
Reich-wing talking point number 3. Stacks
of "No Kings" signs and/or flyers (depending upon the
report you read) were found in Boelter's vehicle.
Whatever you choose to call them, these could have been there for
a number of reasons that had nothing to do with the anti-Trump
sentiment driving the "No Kings" movement. It could
have been that Boelter was planning on attending one of the local No
Kings events to harass or harm protesters (that possibility
apparently led to official cancellations of No Kings events
across the state and warnings not to attend such events, but
these warnings did not keep Minnesotans from turning out in force in St. Paul).
There was also some speculation that Boelter has "sovereign citizen"
leanings and is driven by a general anti-government fanaticism,
and therefore was just co-opting the current "No Kings"
movement to further his own radical agenda. That seems to me to
be the least credible theory, but investigations into motives are
ongoing.
Or he could have just put the pieces of paper there to confound
investigators; killers sometimes like to do things like that just to
muddy the waters, as I noted in the August 2019 post linked to in this sentence (see under the subhead, "Forensic manifestering").
In short, it's highly unlikely that this stack of
papers was evidence that Boelter was sympathetic to the the
current "No Kings" anti-Trump movement. Brett Molnar,
who runs the Voice of Reason Facebook page, posted this on June 16, 2025:
They’re at it again—WorldStar
thumbnails, rage-bait tweets, “antifa inside job” TikToks
spinning like a slot machine—anything to flip Vance Boelter’s
massacre from MAGA blood‐sport to progressive false flag.
Let’s burn the fog off the facts, paragraph by paragraph,
before the algorithm cements another lie.
The flyer photo is real. Yes, Sheriff’s deputies found a
shrink-wrapped stack of “NO KINGS” handouts in Boelter’s
Chevy. They were zip-tied together, never unfolded, never
handed out. Evidence tag reads: “Unmarked leaflets, approx.
150 count, recovered from trunk.” Full stop.
Where did they come from? Detectives traced the design to a
carton printed for Minneapolis’ June 13 No Kings Day march.
Volunteers noticed one bundle missing after teardown. Same
printer, same cheap 20-lb copy paper, same smudge on the K in
KINGS. Boelter didn’t design them—he shoplifted them.
Why steal protest flyers? Classic disinfo prop: stash your
enemy’s logo in your kit so online partisans will screech
“SEE? ANTIFA!” the moment the evidence table hits local
news. Lone-wolf terrorists have been planting decoys since
the Unabomber mailed false leads about woodworkers.
No Kings organizers aren’t hiding. They posted the original
Adobe file plus the printer’s timestamp on Instagram within
hours of the rumor. They condemned the murders, offered to
testify, and published their entire expense spreadsheet—$87.41
at FedEx Office, line item and all.
Boelter’s digital footprint shreds the hoax. Phone
forensics show Telegram channels called “Patriot Purge,”
“Infowars Live,” and a meme folder titled “BuildTheWall.”
Voter file: registered Republican. Roommate’s CBS
interview: “He wore a Trump beanie to bed.” That’s not
antifa cosplay.
Law enforcement statements tell the same story. Ramsey County
Sheriff: “No evidence links organized activist groups to
the suspect’s planning or motive.” FBI spokesperson: “Currently
classified as a politically motivated violent extremist with
anti-immigrant ideology.” Translation: right-wing lone
actor.
But the right-wing spin machine is faster than the press
release...
I did see an article on one site that described
"No Kings" as a radical anti-government movement.
Umm.... no, it's not. The "No Kings" movement behind the current wave of protests is very much
PRO-government, at least the government that was envisioned by
America's founders, not the totalitarian nightmare that Trump et
al. are trying so hard to create.
Also -- and this cannot be over-emphasized -- consider the fact
that the apparent hit lists that were reportedly found in
Boelter's abandoned vehicle contained a list of Democratic
politicians (including Governor Tim Walz) and abortion-rights
activists, as well as information about clinics. Add to this
the clear indications on Boelter's social media that he was sympathetic to Christian nationalist
organizations and causes, and fiercely opposed to abortion and
LGBTQ rights.
Here's a closer look at Boelter and his apparent love for a
theology of violence. It's very much
worth reading.
All of the above would suggest that if these were indeed
politically motivated shootings, and not just random craziness,
then Vance Luther Boelter is most likely not a Democrat who was
miffed by fellow Democrats voting with republicans on a bill.
In other words, all indications are that he is the exact opposite
of the man in the Reich fever-swamp narrative.
Fantasy careers, evangelicalism,
and forced-birth fascism
Investigators as well as reporters are still trying to piece
together a more comprehensive portrait of Vance Boelter, but
sussing out his career path is proving to be no small challenge,
since he has apparently embellished his resume. From NPR, June 15, 2025:
Authorities said Boelter disguised
himself as a law enforcement officer during the attack and
news reports have focused on his apparent work as a security
professional. But NPR's review of Boelter's online records
and employment history found many of those claims about his
professional life appear untrue.
In social media posts and websites, Boelter said he had
extensive experience as a security professional with
"training by both private security firms and by people
in the U.S. Military."
NPR found little evidence to support
Boelter's account. He appears to have worked most of his
career in the food service industry and one long-time friend
described parts of Boelter's narrative about his life as
"fantasy."...
...On the website for a company called
Praetorian Guard Security Services, LLC, Boelter described
himself as part of the "leadership team."
NPR found no record of the firm having clients or providing
any services. A call to the company's phone number connected
to what appears to be a private phone line, not a business.
The address listed in incorporation papers appeared to be
that of a law firm specializing in divorce litigation.
Boelter himself appears to have no history working in law
enforcement, the military or private security...
...In an interview with Fox
News 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul,
one of Boelter's long-time friends, David Carlson, downplayed
the idea that he had any real-world military or security
experience. "He was always kind of into the military
stuff, but it was just, we were always like that. Me and him,
we would play army men," Carlson said.
CNN has been keeping a running update on this case.
On June 14 segment titled "10 things to know about the
shooting suspect," among the items noted were:
• He is an
outspoken evangelical Christian who traveled to Africa to
tell his faith story and, in at least one sermon, pointedly
questioned American morals on sexual orientation, according
to videos and social media posts reviewed by CNN.
• Names on a
list found in his car, which CNN obtained, are largely
Democrats or figures with ties to Planned Parenthood or the
abortion rights movement. The list included prominent
lawmakers like Rep. Ilhan Omar and Sen. Tina Smith as well as
Planned Parenthood leaders.
There's much more on
that page about Boelter that seem to offer significant clues as
to his probable motives. Here's that link again.
And on a June 15, 2025 piece,
SFGate (among numerous other outlets) published an AP article
that lays out as good a summary as I've seen bolstering the case
that Boelter is not a disgruntled Dem but is actually pro-Trump
-- and, not irrelevant to possible motives, very much
anti-abortion.
Friends and former colleagues
interviewed by The Associated Press described Boelter as a
devout Christian who attended an evangelical church and went
to campaign rallies for President Donald 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.
Near the scene at Hortman’s home, authorities say they
found an SUV made to look like those used by law enforcement.
Inside they found fliers for a local anti-Trump “No Kings”
rally scheduled for Saturday and a notebook with names of
other lawmakers. The list also included the names of abortion
rights advocates and health care officials, according to two
law enforcement officials who could not discuss details of
the ongoing investigation and spoke to AP on condition of
anonymity.
Both Hortman and Hoffman were defenders of abortion rights at
the state legislature.
It's important to note that these friends told
the AP that even though they knew Boelter was religious and
conservative, he didn't talk about politics often and didn't seem
extreme. But apparently he was hiding his more strident beliefs
from his friends at home, letting his true self out on the stage
when he preached in the Democratic Republic of Congo a couple
of years ago. In one sermon he told the
congregation that the U.S. was a "bad place" where most
churches didn't oppose abortion.
Here is a link to a
video of a 2023 sermon; Boelter's part
begins at about 36:35. And here's a link where you can watch part
of a 2021 sermon in which Boelter performs an unhinged
Jeezus dance.
All in all, and I hope you'll forgive me for belaboring a point,
he really doesn't sound much like your typical Democrat to me.
The probable real reasons Boelter
targeted Hortman and Hoffman (and Rest and Bahner et al.)
Melissa Hortman was a strong advocate for abortion rights and numerous other
progressive causes, including transgender rights, according to The19th news site. She was also a
tireless champion for Minnesota families, according to
colleagues. Regarding her stance and actions on abortion,
The19thNews reported:
After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned
the federal right to abortion in June 2022, Minnesota emerged
as a key access point for abortion as other Midwestern states
moved to ban the procedure.
“There was a simmering rage that did not stop,” Hortman
said after the 2022 election, according to Minnesota
Public Radio. “I was
hopeful that voters would take that energy and put it on the
ballot and vote for Democrats. And thankfully they did.”
In 2023, Hortman led the Minnesota House in passing the PRO Act,
legislation that codified the legality of abortion and other
forms of reproductive health care in the state. In subsequent
bills, the Minnesota legislature eliminated other
restrictions on abortion, passed protections for abortion
providers, boosted state funding for clinics providing
abortion and eliminated funding for anti-abortion counseling
centers.
Hoffman, too, is pro-choice, if his voting
records on the abortion issue are any indication. He is also
deeply concerned with helping some of the most vulnerable people.
Health care and education have been among his pet causes. He has been a staunch advocate for people with
disabilities; his own daughter is an
amputee.
Clearly, neither Hortman nor Hoffman was a single-issue legislator. But as
the materials reported to be in Boelter abandoned vehicle
seemed to focus heavily on abortion rights advocates and
providers, and both Hortman and Hoffman have voted in favor of
reproductive rights, it's not unreasonable to speculate that Boelter was driven above all by anti-abortion fanaticism -- especially in light of
the fact that, as mentioned above, he also targeted two other
strong abortion rights lawmakers, Senator Ann Rest and
Representative Kristin Bahner.
United we stand... mostly, and
for the moment, anyway
There is at least some indication that Democratic and republican
leadership, if not the finger-pointing electorate, have declared a temporary truce and are united in their
mourning for the victims and their families. Even Trump has issued the obligatory "this is
horrible" statement, though it's probably only a matter of
time before he starts blaming the Dems. He has already managed to
get a gratuitous and egregiously unpresidential dig in at
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, within the
context of making a statement about the shootings.
UPDATE, June 17, 2025:
Trump is in full blame-the-Dems mode now, or at least
blame-Walz mode, having declared that he is not going to call Governor
Walz (previously he had told reporters
that he might call him). Why the decision not to make the call?
Because it would be a "waste of time," since the
governor is so "whacked out" and "doesn't have a
clue" and is "a mess." How very, very
presidential.
There is also, as there always is when some horrible act of
political violence occurs in our land, a general sentiment that
violence should have absolutely no place in American politics. We
should all agree on that. I have my political biases,
which I freely acknowledge. But if the suspect really had turned
out to be a Democrat/liberal/left-winger, I would be as appalled
and outraged and sad as I presently am. I would still be calling
for him to be captured, tried, and if found guilty punished
within the fullest extent of the law.
Even so, unlike my Trumpist Facebook friend, I do not believe
that all republicans are evil and prone to violence. And it is
worse than stupid -- it's Christ-on-a-bike-level moronic -- to
try to pin this horror on the Democrats.
PS ~ In case you still have any doubts... this is
from a commentator I follow on BlueSky Social, Machine Pun Kelly.
It's a very good and detailed vid that debunks the narrative
that Vance Boelter is a lib.
This post has been updated since its
original publication on June 15, 2025. I will continue to update
as more details emerge.
Before you leave...
While money cannot make some
nightmares go away, be they political or personal, it can make
them far easier to bear. With my husband Ron's passing in
February 2025, I have experienced significant income loss and am
scrambling to find more work, but in an industry increasingly
being taken over by AI, it has been a challenge. Now more than
ever, donations are urgently needed and profoundly appreciated.
Here are some ways to do it:
- New: Venmo -- username
@Connie-Schmidt-42. Here is a direct link
to the Venmo page.
- New: PayPal -- Here is a direct link
to my PayPal page.
- Old but still good: You can
click on the "Donate" icon that currently
appears on the right-hand side of every page of this blog
on the Web version. There's also a donation link at the
end of many of my older blog posts. In the case of both
the icon and the links on the older posts, as well as the
link in this sentence, this is also a PayPal link, but it references the email account RevRon -- which is cool, because it all ultimately
goes to the same place.
NOTE: If you are donating by PayPal, please
specify that your contribution is for "friends and
family," which will waive PayPal's substantial transaction
fee.
Whether you can donate or not, thank you for visiting this
Whirled.
