City of Tonawanda GOP chair apologizes for assault weapon Facebook meme

Just hours after Minnesotans learned that Democratic House leader Melissa Hortman had been assassinated, right-wing influencer Collin Rugg, who has 1.8 million followers on X, posted a “report” that hinted that she’d been killed because of a recent vote on ending undocumented adults’ ability to enroll in MinnesotaCare, a subsidized health insurance for the working poor.

Mike Cernovich, another right-wing influencer who has 1.4 million followers on X, took Rugg’s post and amped it up, but in the “just asking questions” style of many conspiracy theories:

“Did Tim Walz have her executed to send a message?”

They were deeply ignorant about the MinnesotaCare issue.

Walz and Hortman — who was instrumental in passing legislation allowing undocumented people to sign up for MinnesotaCare as speaker of the House in 2023 — negotiated a compromise with Republicans in the Minnesota Legislature to end eligibility for adults, but keep it for children. They did so to win necessary Republican support in the 67-67 House to pass a state budget. Without it, state government would have shut down on July 1.

Both Hortman and Walz signed the compromise agreement in mid-May. This week, Hortman spoke tearfully about how difficult the vote was for her, but she was bound to vote yes on the issue because of the prior agreement.

The “theory” of Hortman’s killing was further undercut by the vote of Democratic Sen. John Hoffman — who was also targeted by the suspect — against rolling back MinnesotaCare for undocumented Minnesotans.

Rugg and Cernovich’s posts were shared widely and just the start of the disinformation.

Once law enforcement sources began revealing a suspect, right-wing influencers ran with an insignificant detail: That Vance Luther Boelter was a “Walz appointee.”

Like many states, but even more so here, Minnesota is home to hundreds of nonpartisan and bipartisan boards and commissions, which are composed of thousands of people who typically win the appointment by simply volunteering. There are 342 open positions on Minnesota boards and commissions. Boelter was appointed to the Workforce Development Council by Walz’s predecessor Gov. Mark Dayton and reappointed by Walz.

It was the equivalent of calling a Sunday school volunteer an “appointee of the bishop.”

No matter, the Murdoch media machine, specifically the New York Post, had their headline: “Former appointee of Tim Walz sought….”

Cernovich had his greasy foil hot dog wrapper and began constructing a hat:

“The Vice President candidate for the Democrat party is directly connected to a domestic terrorist, that is confirmed, the only question is whether Tim Walz himself ordered the political hit against a rival who voted against Walz’s plan to give free healthcare to illegals.”

Walz had no such plan. He had signed an agreement to end eligibility for undocumented adults.

Joey Mannarino, who has more than 600,000 followers on X, was more crass:

“Rumor has it she was preparing to switch parties. The Democrats are VIOLENT SCUM.”

It was a ridiculous “rumor.” One of the last photos of Hortman alive was an image of her at the Democratic-Farmer-Labor’s big annual fundraising event, the Humphrey-Mondale dinner, which took place just hours before her assassination.

No matter, Cernovich wanted his new friends in federal law enforcement to act:

“The FBI must take Tim Walz into custody immediately.”

Finally, fresh off his humiliating defeat at the hands of President Donald Trump, world’s richest man Elon Musk quote-tweeted someone again falsely alleging Hortman was killed by “the left” and added:

“The far left is murderously violent.”

The suspect’s “hit list,” according to an official who has seen the list, comprised Minnesotans who have been outspoken in favor of abortion rights. CNN reported that it also included several abortion clinics, which doesn’t sound like the work of “the left.”

Right-wing influencers marred Hortman’s death and smeared Walz on a pile of lies.

In a different, saner world, they would be humiliated and slink away. But the smart money is that during the next moment of national crisis and mourning, they will again lie for profit.

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough blasted Sen. Mike Lee's (R-UT) Monday over his response to the shootings of two Democratic state legislators and their spouses.

The Republican senator blamed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for the assassination of former House speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark and the wounding of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette. Vance Boelter, an apparent religious conservative and Donald Trump supporter, has been accused of the attacks.

The "Morning Joe" host was appalled by Lee's social media post.

"One politician, and I will say a man that I've known and in the past have had a good relationship, and, like, seemed like a soft- spoken man, but somebody that posted this weekend, Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, obviously facing strong criticism for social media posts about the Minnesota shooting suspect," Scarborough said.

"Yesterday, Lee posted a picture of the suspect at the door of one of the lawmakers with the caption, 'This is what happens when Marxists don't get their way.' It is a pinned tweet at the top of his page, [and] 25 minutes later, the senator posted another picture of the suspected shooter with the caption, 'Nightmare on Walz Street,' mocking, of course, the situation with the name of the Minnesota governor. This post came hours before Lee tweeted a 'Happy Fathers Day' message."

"'What the hell is Mike Lee doing?'" Scarborough added, quoting conservative journalist Brad Polumbo. "'Has he completely lost it?'"

Lee faced widespread condemnation, and Scarborough added his own by stating that he would have thought the senator was above that sort of social media trolling.

"We're used to wackos on the extremes on both sides posting bizarre things on social media," Scarborough said. "What happens when it's mainstreamed by a senator? Again, a guy that I've known and used to try to be a thoughtful, conservative voice for small-government conservatism.

"When he starts posting things like this, and what is the, what's the United States Senate's answer to that? I only ask that because I can tell you back in my day, I guess in the Stone Age it is now, I mean, the senator on either side would have been roundly condemned by members of his or her own party if they had done this."

Watch the video below or at this link.

- YouTube youtu.be