The Minnesota Shooting and MAGA Disinformation

Today's Republican Party might be viewed as a merger of the Tea Party movement of a decade ago and QAnon conspiracy theorists. With cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump at its head and powered by its own self-contained media ecosystem, the movement has little value for facts, instead preferring "alternative truths". Therefore, while it is disappointing, it is not surprising that in the wake of the murder of Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband and the wounding of State Senator John Hoffman and his wife this past Saturday, MAGA supporters have indulged in spreading disinformation and falsehoods about the attack.

First, the facts as outlined in the FBI affidavit submitted in U.S. District Court. Shortly before 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning, Vance Luther Boelter pounded on the door of the Hoffman's house. When the door was opened, he entered the home and subsequently shot both Hoffmans. Their daughter called 911 to report the shooting. Police reviewed security camera footage and observed that Boelter had been dressed as a police officer and was driving a vehicle that resembled a police SUV.

After the shooting, Boelter drove to the home of a public official identified in the affidavit as "Public Official 1". There, Boelter knocked on their door and identified himself as a police officer. Public Official 1 and her family were not home and, therefore, nobody answered the door. Minutes after Boelter left Public Official 1's home, he was spotted by a local law enforcement officer sitting in his vehicle near the home of another public official identified in the affidavit as "Public Official 2". The law enforcement officer believed that Boelter was an authentic police officer providing protection for Public Official 2 and continued onto Public Official 2's home. The SUV soon disappeared.

Approximately an hour later, local law enforcement officers conducting a safety check at the Hortman's home encountered Boelter's SUV that was disguised as a police vehicle. They also saw Boelter, dressed as a police officer, standing at the Hortman's door. At that moment, Boelter fired several shots and entered the house. Boelter fled the house and was able to escape from the area. In the SUV, police found information linking to Boelter that they used to identify him. They also found notebooks listing the names and other information of a number of Democratic public officials. Press reports say that abortion-related individuals and businesses were also listed, though that is not mentioned in the affidavit. Also not mentioned in the affidavit were flyers for "No Kings" demonstrations that were scheduled for that day.

So, in sum, Boelter had just shot two Democratic legislators, had a list of more than 45 additional Democratic state and federal public officials, as well as abortion providers, and had "No Kings" flyers. Minnesota State Police sent out a tweet showing a photo of the flyers and asking the public not to attend the planned demonstrations "out of an abundance of caution". A normal person would conclude that Boelter opposed Democrats and might be a threat to No Kings demonstrators. But MAGAs are not normal people. The New York Post quickly went to press with an article that had a headline identifying Boelter as a "Former appointee of Tim Walz", referring to the fact that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz had once appointed Boelter to the nonpartisan 40-member Workforce Development Board. Buried near the end of the article, the Post reported that "Boelter last registered to vote in 2022 as a Republican." That point was completely ignored by MAGAs.

MAGAs also picked up on the fact that Hortman had been a key vote to pass a measure cutting state health benefits for undocumented immigrants. Never mind that Hoffman had voted against the bill, MAGAs immediately claimed that the Walz-appointed Boelter must be a Democrat who supported the No Kings demonstrations and was shooting Democratic legislators because they had voted contrary to Democratic preferences. Again, Hoffman hadn't done that, and Walz himself was on the list. Boelter's best friend and part-time roommate told the press that Boelter had voted for Trump and supported Trump. Regarding claims that Boelter is a Democrat, his roommate said that Boelter would be offended by the label. Nevertheless, MAGAs stuck to their claim that Boelter was a liberal.

One offender was former Shadow President Elon Musk. When a poster on X blamed "The Left" for the shootings, Musk retweeted the post, adding "The far left is murderously violent". Republican Senator Mike Lee retweeted Musk's post, saying "Fact check: TRUE". Lee turned the spreading of misinformation into his own cottage industry. Earlier Lee had tweeted a photo of Boelter wearing a mask and dressed as a police officer with the caption, "This is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way". In a subsequent tweet that included the same picture, Lee wrote "Nightmare on Waltz Street". For Lee, the murder of a state legislator and her husband and the critical shooting of another legislator and his wife was not only an opportunity to spread misinformation, but a laughing matter. One of Minnesota’s Senators, Tina Smith confronted Lee about the tweets and asked him to take them down. Lee doesn't appear to have been receptive to Smith, who said "Honestly, he seemed a little surprised to be confronted."

The MAGA base appears to have heard the message from the New York Post, Musk, Lee, and others. At least if the MAGA posters on DCUM are any indication. In a thread about the shootings, I had to remove approximately 10 pages of posts suggesting that Boelter was a Democrat, a liberal, or a leftist. Even after video of Boelter's roommate saying that Boelter was a Trump supporter, the MAGA posters continued to insist that he must be a Democrat because of the appointment by Walz. Several posters commented on the inability of the MAGA posters to understand the facts. Again, the eternal question about MAGAs arises: Are they malicious or incompetent? As always, I say, it's both.

Update: After receiving widespread criticism, Republican Senator Mike Lee deleted two of the tweets that I mentioned above. However, his tweet agreeing with Elon Musk that "the far left" is "murderously violent" and blaming "the left" for the Minnesota shootings remains up.