Bernie Sanders: President Trump ‘wants all of the power’

A former Coast Guard lieutenant and sharpshooter has been accused in federal court of threatening to assassinate President Donald Trump, writing multiple times on social media that he'd be "willing to pitch in $100 for a contract."

Peter Stinson, of Oakton, Virginia, repeatedly threatened to kill Trump in social media posts, court documents filed in a Virginia federal court alleged Monday. The documents were shared on X by CBS News Justice Correspondent Scott MacFarlane.

An FBI affidavit said Stinson posted hundreds of violent, graphic, and escalating threats on the platforms X, Bluesky, Reddit, and Instagram for five years beginning in 2020. Stinson self-identified member of Antifa with a background in national security and emergency operations.

In April 2020, investigators said he posted an explicit call to crowdfund an assassination attempt, writing: “I’d be willing to pitch in $100 for a contract. Who wants to join me? We could solve the solvable part of this problem in a crack.”

He made a similar comment in February 2025, court documents alleged, writing on Bluesky: "Can we crowd source a contract hit?”

The latter post came a day after Stinson posted a violent fantasy on the same platform he "would twist the knife after sliding it into his fatty flesh.”

And in January of this year, Stinson said, “Somebody needs to do it. Somebody with the skills to do it right. Somebody with the experience. Somebody with the right tools.”

Separately, Stinson has said he believes that someone who "kills the President to save the country has broken no laws."

A judge ordered Stinson to remain held in jail pending the outcome of a hearing Wednesday, MacFarlane reported.

Court documents noted that Stinson was a Coast Guard officer from 1988 to 2021, achieving the rank of lieutenant. He received firearms training and was awarded sharpshooter ribbons for both pistol and rifle. He also received extensive training in operations planning and was an instructor for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Incident Command Systems, courses taught to prepare for and respond to disasters and emergencies.

Additionally, Stinson received a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from the U.S. Naval War College, court documents said.

The allegations come after authorities said Vance Boelter, 57, assassinated Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman. Police arrested Boelter following a manhunt. He is also accused of shooting and wounding state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, at their home.

It also comes after two assassination plots against Trump last year, including one over the summer in which a bullet grazed his ear.

Democratic leaders are struggling to mount a unified response to Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, as party officials “watched in horror” at the president’s escalating tactics in Los Angeles.

That’s according to a new report in The Bulwark, which described Wednesday how protests over ICE raids have become a “playground for Donald Trump’s authoritarian fantasies.” But while Democrats have mostly come out to condemn the raids and the use of the National Guard to target immigrant communities, including garment workers and day laborers, many in the party remain uncertain about how to confront Trump politically.

Democratic leaders are “all over the place,” one prominent immigration advocate told The Bulwark. A Democratic aide described a House caucus meeting Tuesday meant to hone the party's message as “boring” with no strategy.

The internal chaos comes as the party has, so far, been unable “to unite around a single, effective countermessage about Trump’s trampling of L.A.,” according to the report. And behind closed doors, frustrations are boiling.

“The diverging approaches and bubbling frustrations attest to the unease many Democrats continue to feel in conversations about immigration,” The Bulwark said. “It’s also highlighted that the Democratic party remains in disagreement over how much urgency and alarm it should offer in response to what many believe is an existential threat to American democracy.”

“Democrats aren’t going to be able to wish away the news coverage that for the last few days has been dominating the news cycle, simply because we decide we have nothing to say,” one Congressional Hispanic Caucus member said.

Still others in the party, like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, have emerged in the public debate with a sharper tone targeting Trump. The Democratic governor warned Tuesday in a nationally televised address that “democracy is under assault before our eyes.”

But while Democrats “continue to struggle to find their footing,” some fear that the internal party debate will allow Trump to control the narrative, the Bulwark added, as Trump plows ahead with his escalating immigration enforcement threats.