{"id":1295,"date":"2025-06-17T11:35:53","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T11:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/06\/17\/how-us-senator-falsely-claimed-minnesota-shooting-suspect-was-marxist\/"},"modified":"2025-06-17T11:35:53","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T11:35:53","slug":"how-us-senator-falsely-claimed-minnesota-shooting-suspect-was-marxist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/06\/17\/how-us-senator-falsely-claimed-minnesota-shooting-suspect-was-marxist\/","title":{"rendered":"How US senator falsely claimed Minnesota shooting suspect was \u2018Marxist\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The June 14 shooting of Minnesota state lawmakers<\/a> and their spouses has inflamed fears of political violence in the United States. The fatal shooting, which has been dubbed as politically motivated<\/a>, has fuelled online speculation about the gunman\u2019s political beliefs.<\/p>\n

Vance Boelter was arrested<\/a> on June 15 in connection with fatally shooting Democratic lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and injuring state Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. Boelter<\/a> faces state\u00a0and\u00a0federal charges, including second-degree murder, second-degree attempted murder and stalking.<\/p>\n

As Minnesota and federal law enforcement officers launched their two-day search for Boelter, Senator Mike Lee, without evidence, made numerous X posts about the suspect\u2019s ideology.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what happens (w)hen Marxists don\u2019t get their way,\u201d Lee said of Boelter at about 11am ET on June 15. Posting from his personal account, Lee attached a picture of Boelter from the FBI\u2019s \u201cwanted\u201d poster. The post was pinned on Lee\u2019s X profile, ensuring it would be the first thing account visitors encountered.<\/p>\n

That post\u00a0followed\u00a0others\u00a0in which Lee said Boelter held Marxist political beliefs. Marxism refers to the ideology developed by philosopher Karl Marx that serves as a foundational theory for communist and socialist movements.<\/p>\n

As information trickled out that Boelter had homemade \u201cNo Kings\u201d flyers in his car and that he had been appointed to a government board in 2019, Lee was among prominent conservatives calling out purported left-wing violence. Others included billionaire businessman and former White House adviser Elon Musk and US Senator Bernie Moreno. On June 16, Lee reposted Musk, saying \u201cthe far left is murderously violent\u201d.<\/p>\n

But the available evidence \u2013 including public comments from people who knew Boelter, news reports about Boelter\u2019s writings and video of Boelter \u2013 did not support their conclusion that this was the work of a left-leaning ideologue.<\/p>\n

His friends said he was right-leaning, a supporter of President Donald Trump and opposed abortion rights. While preaching in the Democratic Republic of the Congo a few years ago, he spoke against abortion.<\/p>\n

Still, authorities discouraged people from drawing conclusions about Boelter\u2019s motivation or what ideology might have driven his actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously his primary motive was to go out and murder people,\u201d acting US Attorney Joseph Thompson said during a June 16 news briefing after Boelter was apprehended. \u201cThey were all elected officials. They were all Democrats. Beyond that, I think it\u2019s just way too speculative for anyone that\u2019s reviewed these materials to know and to say what was motivating him in terms of ideology or specific issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

We contacted Lee for evidence supporting the statement that Boelter expressed Marxist or left-leaning ideology and received no response.<\/p>\n

On Lee\u2019s Senate X account, he struck a different tone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese hateful attacks have no place in Utah, Minnesota, or anywhere in America,\u201d he wrote on June 15. \u201cPlease join me in condemning this senseless violence, and praying for the victims and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boelter\u2019s ideology and motivations aren\u2019t clear, authorities said<\/h2>\n

Boelter\u2019s online voter registration record includes no mention of his party affiliation, and a Minnesota Secretary of State spokesperson told PolitiFact that the office doesn\u2019t track party affiliation.<\/p>\n

Information and nuance about Boelter\u2019s possible political beliefs were available before Lee\u2019s X posts.<\/p>\n

The New York Times reported on June 14 that state documents in 2016 listed Boelter\u2019s political affiliation as \u201cnone or other\u201d and in 2020 said \u201cno party preference\u201d.<\/p>\n

US Senator Tina Smith said on June 14 that the gunman had a notebook with a list of about 70 targets, including herself, other Democratic lawmakers and \u201cdoctors, community and business leaders, and locations for Planned Parenthood and other health care centers\u201d, The New York Times reported.<\/p>\n

On June 16, Thompson, the acting US attorney, told reporters that speculation or discussion about Boelter having an ideology-filled \u201cmanifesto\u201d wasn\u2019t supported by available evidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen nothing like a Unabomber-style manifesto in (Boelter\u2019s) writings,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cHe had many, many notebooks full of plans, lists of names, surveillance, efforts that he took to surveil and locate the home addresses and family members\u2019 relationships with these elected officials, but I have not seen anything involving some sort of political screed or manifesto that would clearly identify what motivated him.\u201d<\/p>\n

People who knew Boelter described right-leaning political beliefs<\/h2>\n

David Carlson, who\u00a0identified himself to reporters\u00a0as Boelter\u2019s current roommate and longtime friend, said claims that Boelter was a Democrat were inaccurate.<\/p>\n

Carlson rebutted the narrative \u2013 amplified by prominent conservative influencers \u2013 that Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz\u2019s 2019 appointment of Boelter to a state workforce development board proved Boelter was a liberal.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s calling him a Democrat \u2013 he\u2019s not a Democrat,\u201d Carlson said\u00a0to CBS News. \u201cHe would be offended if people called him a Democrat.\u201d Boelter\u2019s appointment to Walz\u2019s workforce development board was reflective of Boelter \u201cserving the community,\u201d not of his political beliefs, Carlson said.<\/p>\n

Boelter did not like former President Joe Biden, Carlson added.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a Trump supporter,\u201d Carlson\u00a0said. \u201cHe voted for Trump. He liked Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before that, on June 14, Carlson told KMSP-TV that in the 1990s, Boelter \u201creally hated abortion\u201d. Carlson said he hadn\u2019t spoken with Boelter about abortion \u201cat length\u201d in years, however.<\/p>\n

Paul Schroeder, another person who has known Boelter for years, described him in similar terms to\u00a0The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Boelter) was right-leaning politically but never fanatical, from what I saw, just strong beliefs,\u201d Schroeder told the AP. \u201cHe never talked to me about abortion\u2026 It seemed to be just that he was a conservative Republican who naturally followed Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

When reporters asked officials on Monday whether abortion rights supporters were among Boelter\u2019s potential targets, Thompson said he believed the names of \u201csome abortion rights supporters\u201d appeared in Boelter\u2019s writings. He also said, however, that there were \u201cdozens and dozens and dozens of names on hundreds of pages\u201d of Boelter\u2019s writings.<\/p>\n

Boelter was also an evangelical Christian missionary who had denounced abortion at least once during a sermon he delivered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,\u00a0Christianity Today\u00a0and\u00a0The Associated Press\u00a0reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe churches are so messed up,\u201d a\u00a0February 2023 YouTube video\u00a0shows Boelter saying. \u201cThey don\u2019t know abortion is wrong, many churches.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our ruling<\/h2>\n

Lee said Boelter was driven by \u201cMarxist\u201d ideology.<\/p>\n

He provided no evidence supporting that statement, and no available information about Boelter\u2019s political beliefs signals that his beliefs were Marxist or left-leaning.<\/p>\n

People who knew Boelter told reporters he was politically right-leaning and voted for Trump. Law enforcement officials said all the potential targets Boelter had identified were elected officials and Democrats, and they discouraged people from making sweeping conclusions about Boelter\u2019s ideology.<\/p>\n

In breaking news situations, it takes time for officials to provide vetted information. Instead of waiting for the facts, Lee promoted an unproven and inflammatory conspiracy theory.<\/p>\n

We rate this claim False<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The June 14 shooting of Minnesota state lawmakers and their spouses has inflamed fears of political violence in the United States. The fatal shooting, which has been dubbed as politically motivated, has fuelled online speculation about the gunman\u2019s political beliefs. Vance Boelter was arrested on June 15 in connection with fatally shooting Democratic lawmaker Melissa … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}