On June 14, 2025, Minnesota State Representative and Speaker of the House of Representatives Melissa Hortman was shot to death in her home in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. She was the leader of the state House Democratic caucus.
Also shot—and killed—was her husband, Mark.
Melissa Hortman, 55, had been a prominent and highly respected figure in Minnesota since first winning office in 2005. During her tenure, she advocated for transportation, environmental rights, abortion rights, police reform and gun control policies. She was also the chief author of the state’s solar energy standard.
Melissa Hortman
Office of Governor Tim Walz & Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan, PDM-owner, via Wikimedia Commons
Earlier that morning, Democratic state Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, had been shot in their home in nearby Champlin. Both were hospitalized and survived.
Police responding to the attack on the Hoffmans checked on the Hortmans’ home, where a man fired at them. The shooter escaped, sparking the most extensive manhunt in Minnesota history.
The authorities quickly identified 57-year-old Vance Luther Boelter as a suspect and captured him on the evening of June 15 in Green Isle, Minnesota. He was federally charged with murder, stalking, and firearms offenses. The state charged Boelter with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of attempted second-degree murder.
Vance Luther Boelter
And how did Republican United States Senator Mike Lee react to the shootings?
Writing on X, the Utah Senator posted: “This is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way.”
On the contrary: Boelter was virulently anti-abortion and anti-Democrat-–and voted in the Republican Presidential primary.
And in a second post, Lee posted a picture of Boelter under the caption “Nightmare on Walz Street,” parodying the title of the slasher film, “Nightmare on Elm Street.”
By “Walz Street,” Lee was referring to Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz, who had been Vice President Kamala Harris’ pick for Vice President in the 2024 Presidential election.
Mike Lee
On October 24, 2018, a would-be killer mailed pipe bombs to:
- Former President Barack Obama
- Former President Bill Clinton
- Former First Lady and United States Senator Hillary Clinton
- Former Attorney General Eric Holder
- Congresswoman Maxine Waters
- Billionaire George Soros
- Former Vice President Joe Biden
- Actor Robert De Niro
- Former CIA Director John Brennan
- Former Chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee Debbie Wasserman Schultz
All of these intended victims had one thing in common: All of them had been brutally and repeatedly attacked by President Donald Trump.
On October 26, Federal law enforcement agents arrested 56-year-old Cesar Sayoc, a bodybuilder and former male dancer.
The FBI also impounded his white van—which was plastered with pro-Donald Trump/Mike Pence images and American flags.
More ominously, it was covered with stickers of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, liberal film maker Michael Moore and Green Party activist Jill Stein—all in crosshairs. There was also a “CNN Sucks” sticker and American flags.
From Aventura, Florida, Sayoc enthusiastically attended Trump rallies, at one of them holding up a sign reading “CNN sucks.”
And who did President Donald Trump blame for the bombings? Not the man arrested for sending pipe-bombs to Trump’s opponents.
On October 25, he tweeted: “A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News. It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!”
Then, on October 27, 11 people were killed and six injured in a shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The killer used an AR-15 assault rifle—the go-to firearm for heavy-duty massacres. It can fire 150 rounds in 15 seconds and about 600 rounds per minute.
Robert Bowers, 46, a Right-wing extremist of suburban Baldwin, faced 29 charges in connection to the rampage. He was charged with 11 counts of using a firearm to commit murder. And he faced multiple counts of two hate crimes. He was sentenced to death in 2023. He remains on Death Row.
And who did White House Counselor Kelleyanne Conway blame for the massacre?
“The anti-religiosity in this country that is somehow in vogue and funny to make fun of anybody of faith, to constantly be making fun of people that express religion—the late-night comedians, the unfunny people on TV shows—it’s always anti-religious.
“These people were gunned down in their place of worship, as were the people in South Carolina several years ago. And they were there because they’re people of faith, and it’s that faith that needs to bring us together.
“This is no time to be driving God out of the public square.”
In 2015, Republicans had faced a similar dilemma.
On June 17, 2015, Dylann Roof, a white high school dropout, gunned down three black men and six black women at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
At 21, Roof was unemployed, dividing his time between playing video games and taking drugs.
The signs of Roof’s malignant racism were evident long before he turned mass murderer:
- He had posed for a photo sitting on the hood of his parents’ car—whose license plate bore a Confederate flag.
- He had posed for pictures wearing a jacket sporting the white supremacist flags of Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa.
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REPUBLICANS: WEAPONIZING MURDER, ESCAPING RESPONSIBILITY: PART ONE (OF FIVE)
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on July 7, 2025 at 1:04 amOn June 14, 2025, Minnesota State Representative and Speaker of the House of Representatives Melissa Hortman was shot to death in her home in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. She was the leader of the state House Democratic caucus.
Also shot—and killed—was her husband, Mark.
Melissa Hortman, 55, had been a prominent and highly respected figure in Minnesota since first winning office in 2005. During her tenure, she advocated for transportation, environmental rights, abortion rights, police reform and gun control policies. She was also the chief author of the state’s solar energy standard.
Melissa Hortman
Office of Governor Tim Walz & Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan, PDM-owner, via Wikimedia Commons
Earlier that morning, Democratic state Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, had been shot in their home in nearby Champlin. Both were hospitalized and survived.
Police responding to the attack on the Hoffmans checked on the Hortmans’ home, where a man fired at them. The shooter escaped, sparking the most extensive manhunt in Minnesota history.
The authorities quickly identified 57-year-old Vance Luther Boelter as a suspect and captured him on the evening of June 15 in Green Isle, Minnesota. He was federally charged with murder, stalking, and firearms offenses. The state charged Boelter with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of attempted second-degree murder.
Vance Luther Boelter
And how did Republican United States Senator Mike Lee react to the shootings?
Writing on X, the Utah Senator posted: “This is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way.”
On the contrary: Boelter was virulently anti-abortion and anti-Democrat-–and voted in the Republican Presidential primary.
And in a second post, Lee posted a picture of Boelter under the caption “Nightmare on Walz Street,” parodying the title of the slasher film, “Nightmare on Elm Street.”
By “Walz Street,” Lee was referring to Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz, who had been Vice President Kamala Harris’ pick for Vice President in the 2024 Presidential election.
Mike Lee
On October 24, 2018, a would-be killer mailed pipe bombs to:
All of these intended victims had one thing in common: All of them had been brutally and repeatedly attacked by President Donald Trump.
On October 26, Federal law enforcement agents arrested 56-year-old Cesar Sayoc, a bodybuilder and former male dancer.
The FBI also impounded his white van—which was plastered with pro-Donald Trump/Mike Pence images and American flags.
More ominously, it was covered with stickers of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, liberal film maker Michael Moore and Green Party activist Jill Stein—all in crosshairs. There was also a “CNN Sucks” sticker and American flags.
From Aventura, Florida, Sayoc enthusiastically attended Trump rallies, at one of them holding up a sign reading “CNN sucks.”
And who did President Donald Trump blame for the bombings? Not the man arrested for sending pipe-bombs to Trump’s opponents.
On October 25, he tweeted: “A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News. It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!”
Then, on October 27, 11 people were killed and six injured in a shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The killer used an AR-15 assault rifle—the go-to firearm for heavy-duty massacres. It can fire 150 rounds in 15 seconds and about 600 rounds per minute.
Robert Bowers, 46, a Right-wing extremist of suburban Baldwin, faced 29 charges in connection to the rampage. He was charged with 11 counts of using a firearm to commit murder. And he faced multiple counts of two hate crimes. He was sentenced to death in 2023. He remains on Death Row.
And who did White House Counselor Kelleyanne Conway blame for the massacre?
“The anti-religiosity in this country that is somehow in vogue and funny to make fun of anybody of faith, to constantly be making fun of people that express religion—the late-night comedians, the unfunny people on TV shows—it’s always anti-religious.
“These people were gunned down in their place of worship, as were the people in South Carolina several years ago. And they were there because they’re people of faith, and it’s that faith that needs to bring us together.
“This is no time to be driving God out of the public square.”
In 2015, Republicans had faced a similar dilemma.
On June 17, 2015, Dylann Roof, a white high school dropout, gunned down three black men and six black women at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
At 21, Roof was unemployed, dividing his time between playing video games and taking drugs.
The signs of Roof’s malignant racism were evident long before he turned mass murderer:
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