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’s political beliefs.
Vance Boelter was arrested 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 faces state and federal charges, including second-degree murder, second-degree attempted murder and stalking.
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’s ideology.
“This is what happens (w)hen Marxists don’t get their way,” 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’s “wanted” poster. The post was pinned on Lee’s X profile, ensuring it would be the first thing account visitors encountered.
That post followed others in 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.
As information trickled out that Boelter had homemade “No Kings” 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 “the far left is murderously violent”.
But the available evidence – including public comments from people who knew Boelter, news reports about Boelter’s writings and video of Boelter – did not support their conclusion that this was the work of a left-leaning ideologue.
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.
Still, authorities discouraged people from drawing conclusions about Boelter’s motivation or what ideology might have driven his actions.
“Obviously his primary motive was to go out and murder people,” acting US Attorney Joseph Thompson said during a June 16 news briefing after Boelter was apprehended. “They were all elected officials. They were all Democrats. Beyond that, I think it’s just way too speculative for anyone that’s reviewed these materials to know and to say what was motivating him in terms of ideology or specific issues.”
We contacted Lee for evidence supporting the statement that Boelter expressed Marxist or left-leaning ideology and received no response.
On Lee’s Senate X account, he struck a different tone.
“These hateful attacks have no place in Utah, Minnesota, or anywhere in America,” he wrote on June 15. “Please join me in condemning this senseless violence, and praying for the victims and their families.”
Boelter’s ideology and motivations aren’t clear, authorities said
Boelter’s online voter registration record includes no mention of his party affiliation, and a Minnesota Secretary of State spokesperson told PolitiFact that the office doesn’t track party affiliation.
Information and nuance about Boelter’s possible political beliefs were available before Lee’s X posts.
The New York Times reported on June 14 that state documents in 2016 listed Boelter’s political affiliation as “none or other” and in 2020 said “no party preference”.
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 “doctors, community and business leaders, and locations for Planned Parenthood and other health care centers”, The New York Times reported.
On June 16, Thompson, the acting US attorney, told reporters that speculation or discussion about Boelter having an ideology-filled “manifesto” wasn’t supported by available evidence.
“I’ve seen nothing like a Unabomber-style manifesto in (Boelter’s) writings,” Thompson said. “He 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’ 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.”
People who knew Boelter described right-leaning political beliefs
David Carlson, who identified himself to reporters as Boelter’s current roommate and longtime friend, said claims that Boelter was a Democrat were inaccurate.
Carlson rebutted the narrative – amplified by prominent conservative influencers – that Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s 2019 appointment of Boelter to a state workforce development board proved Boelter was a liberal.
“Everyone’s calling him a Democrat – he’s not a Democrat,” Carlson said to CBS News. “He would be offended if people called him a Democrat.” Boelter’s appointment to Walz’s workforce development board was reflective of Boelter “serving the community,” not of his political beliefs, Carlson said.
Boelter did not like former President Joe Biden, Carlson added.
“He was a Trump supporter,” Carlson said. “He voted for Trump. He liked Trump.”
Before that, on June 14, Carlson told KMSP-TV that in the 1990s, Boelter “really hated abortion”. Carlson said he hadn’t spoken with Boelter about abortion “at length” in years, however.
Paul Schroeder, another person who has known Boelter for years, described him in similar terms to The Associated Press.
“(Boelter) was right-leaning politically but never fanatical, from what I saw, just strong beliefs,” Schroeder told the AP. “He never talked to me about abortion… It seemed to be just that he was a conservative Republican who naturally followed Trump.”
When reporters asked officials on Monday whether abortion rights supporters were among Boelter’s potential targets, Thompson said he believed the names of “some abortion rights supporters” appeared in Boelter’s writings. He also said, however, that there were “dozens and dozens and dozens of names on hundreds of pages” of Boelter’s writings.
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, Christianity Today and The Associated Press reported.
“The churches are so messed up,” a February 2023 YouTube video shows Boelter saying. “They don’t know abortion is wrong, many churches.”
Our ruling
Lee said Boelter was driven by “Marxist” ideology.
He provided no evidence supporting that statement, and no available information about Boelter’s political beliefs signals that his beliefs were Marxist or left-leaning.
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’s ideology.
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.
We rate this claim False.
