FBI agents fatally shooting a Utah man

DENVER — This week’s confrontation that ended with FBI agents fatally shooting a 74-year-old Utah man who threatened to assassinate President Joe Biden was just the latest example of how violent rhetoric has created a more perilous political environment across the U.S. Six days earlier, a 52-year-old Texas man was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for threatening to kill Arizona election workers. Four days before that, prosecutors charged a 56-year-old Michigan woman for lying to buy guns for her mentally ill adult son, who threatened to use them against Biden and that state’s Democratic governor. Rising political threats take U.S. into uncharted territory as 2024 election looms Threats against public officials have been steadily climbing in recent years, creating new challenges for law enforcement, civil rights and the health of American democracy. Threats against public officials have been steadily climbing in recent years, creating new challenges for law enforcement, civil rights and the health of American democracy. The Capitol Police last year reported that they investigated more than double the number of threats against members of Congress as they did four years earlier. Driven by former President Donald Trump’s lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him, threats against election workers have exploded, with one in six reporting threats against them and many seasoned election administrators leaving the job or considering it. “It’s definitely increased in the last five years,” said Jake Spano, mayor in the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park and a board member of the National League of Cities, which issued a report in 2021 finding that 81 percent of local elected officials reported receiving threats and 87 percent saw the problem worsening. https://m.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10211982635756720 https://m.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10211982639956825 https://m.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10211982643276908 https://m.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10211982657157255 https://m.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10211982662157380 https://m.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10211982665957475 https://m.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10211982668837547 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https://caribbeanfever.com/photo/albums/cnljkji789uj90hjial https://korsika.ning.com/photo/albums/chjwn879hugyu3298hua https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/rita-hart-support-of-biden https://www.myminifactory.com/users/investigating-business-joe-biden-son https://forum.melanoma.org/user/biden-is-already-facing-questions-about-his-abilit/profile/ https://forums.hitched.co.uk/chat/forums/thread/joe-biden-right-hand-remained-awkwardly-behind-her-back-1111483/ https://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-forums/the-first-accuses-joe-biden-of-abusing-the-power-of-his-office/6582f91f2bbb3739.html https://www.englishld.com/discussion/ask-something-related-to-english-speaking-countries/united-states/when-joe-biden-team-sees-the-bombshell-ohio-election https://argueanything.com/thread/joe-biden-came-to-utah-wednesday-and-thursday-to-tout-his-work-to-help-veterans/ https://www.dibiz.com/joebideneconomic https://www.aspanishlife.com/wall/32177-when-it-comes-to-the-politically-treacherous-push-to-impeach-joe-biden https://gotartwork.com/Blog/investigate-hunter-biden-ensures-the-criminal-probe/194454/ https://techplanet.today/post/america-is-heading-for-an-election-filled-with-scandals https://dyana.hashnode.dev/family-of-utah-man-shot-dead-by-fbi-after-threats-to-joe-biden https://app.lookbook.nu/look/9518422-Joe-B Officials in Spano’s town got deluged in 2018, when Trump tweeted critically about its city council’s decision to stop saying the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of its meetings. “The lasting impact of Donald Trump’s presidency is that he made it clear that the norms of how we treat each other no longer apply,” said Spano, a Democrat. The threats are not simply an issue of coarsening of the national discourse. Experts warn they can be precursors of political violence. In 2017, a man who belonged to a Facebook group called “Terminate the Republican Party” opened fire on GOP House members as they practiced for a charity baseball game, severely wounding now-House Majority Leader Steve Scalise. Last year, the 82-year-old husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, was assaulted by a hammer-wielding man who had posted right-wing conspiracy theories online before breaking into the couple’s San Francisco home. Also last year, a man was arrested with knives, a pistol and zip ties outside the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh amid protests against the high court overturning women’s right to obtain abortions. Then an armed Ohio man in body armor who had been at the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was shot and killed after trying to enter an FBI office following that agency’s search last summer of Trump’s Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago. Trump has repeatedly slammed the FBI and has called for a takeover of the Justice Department should he win the presidency again, as he faces additional charges related to his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Trump has referred to the special counsel overseeing the federal prosecutions, Jack Smith, as “deranged” and an “out of touch lunatic,” and to the charges against him as “election interference and yet another attempt to rig and steal a presidential election.” He also has attacked a local Georgia prosecutor expected to file more charges against him next week, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Experts warn the escalating rhetoric could increase the risks of violence, especially as the 2024 election and Trump’s trials draw closer. Lone attackers acting impulsively, rather than mass violence such as the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, are the greatest worry, said Javed Ali, a former senior FBI counterrorism official now at the University of Michigan. “That threat can materialize very quickly with no notice,” he said. In an affidavit from FBI agents, Craig Deleeuw Robertson sounded like he could be that type of threat. Authorities said the self-employed woodworker referred to himself as a “MAGA Trumper” — referring to Trump’s ”Make America Great Again” slogan — and had posted threats against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and New York Attorney General Letitia James, all of whom have been targets of Trump’s own attacks on social media. Trump’s Truth Social network was the first to warn the FBI about him after Robertson in March posted a threat to kill Bragg, the first prosecutor to file criminal charges against Trump. Even after a visit from FBI agents, the affidavit said, Robertson continued posting violent words and imagery online, including quipping that if the FBI was still monitoring his posts he would “be sure to have a loaded gun in case you drop by again.” He also posted about killing Biden, who was due to visit the state Thursday.