In the aftermath of a widely-panned speech by Joe Biden declaring all Trump supporters to be a “threat ot democracy,” conservatives across the country have been the victims of political violence, with some instances turning deadly.
As reported by Fox News, the most infamous example to date took place in North Dakota, where an 18-year-old Trump supporter, Cayler Ellingson, was murdered by a 41-year-old man, Shannon Brandt, due to Ellingson’s political beliefs; Brandt ran the teenager over with his SUV and then fled the scene, later confessing to the crime to police but falsely claiming that Ellingson was part of a “Republican extremist group.”
Other prominent examples have focused specifically on those who are against abortion, with violence against pro-life activists in particular skyrocketing, particularly after the overturning of Roe v. Wade earlier this year. In Michigan, an 84-year-old pro-life volunteer was shot while canvassing door-to-door in support of a pro-life ballot measure. Following the Roe decision, numerous other pro-life centers were vandalized or partially destroyed, from tactics ranging from graffiti to firebombing by Molotov cocktails; a far-left domestic terrorist group known as “Jane’s Revenge” claimed credit for most of the attacks.
In Texas, two volunteers for the re-election campaign of Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas) were attacked in a Houston suburb, when a man chased them through the neighborhood up to their car; as he attempted to rip one of the volunteers out of the car, he tore off the side view mirror before they managed to drive away.
Many GOP campaign offices across the country have also been vandalized by far-left terrorists. The Larimer County Republican Party headquarters in Colorado and the Ottawa County GOP building in Michigan both faced vandalism that included the destruction of campaign signs and damage to the facades of the buildings. In Florida, a GOP office in Seminole County had graffiti sprayed onto the wall calling Republicans “fascists.”
During Biden’s September 1st speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, which featured ominous dark-red lighting and two silhouetted Marines standing at attention behind the podium, Biden declared that “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.” Biden also referred to supporters of President Trump as “a clear and present danger;” President Trump received the votes of over 74 million Americans in the 2020 presidential election.
“They promote authoritarian leaders,” Biden falsely claimed, “and they fan the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country.”
Political violence by the Left has spiked in recent years, spearheaded by the race riots committed by Black Lives Matter and other far-left racial groups. Even prior to the nationwide riots in 2020 that destroyed hundreds of cities, thousands of businesses, killed over two dozen, and caused over $2 billion in damages, various other violent riots had impacted other cities around the country in preceding years, including Baltimore, Maryland and Ferguson, Missouri.
Following the election of Donald Trump in 2016, the Anarcho-Communist terrorist group Antifa began actively targeting peaceful conservative events with violence. This included a planned speech by conservative pundit Milo Yiannopoulos at the University of California, Berkeley in February of 2017, and a demonstration in support of Confederate monuments in Charlottesville, Virginia in August that same year.