Politics
Arizona Democrats ditch campaign office after suspect is arrested in shooting incidents
Authorities in Arizona say a man arrested in connection with a string of shootings targeting Democratic campaign offices in the Phoenix area kept more than 120 guns at his home and apparently had been plotting a mass casualty event.
On Thursday, a source confirmed to NBC News that Democrats are no longer using the office, which was targeted in three separate shootings. The suspect, a 60-year-old man named Jeffrey Michael Kelly, was arrested Tuesday on several charges, including committing an act of terrorism, unlawful discharge of a firearm and shooting at a nonresidential structure.
And more charges may be on the way. As NBC News reported:
Police said Wednesday that additional charges may be filed in connection with plastic bags containing a white powdery substance hung on political signs that Kelly is accused of posting and lining with razor blades in the village of Ahwatukee, where he lives.
When he was arrested, Kelly had a machine gun and “numerous guns in his car to potentially do something,” Deputy Maricopa County Attorney Neha Bhatia said.
“The state and law enforcement believes that this person was preparing to commit an act of mass casualty with the guns he had,” Bhatia said at Kelly’s initial appearance in Superior Court, saying investigators also found multiple machine guns, loaded firearms, silencers, long-range scopes and body armor in his home.
A defense attorney, Jason Squires, warned against prejudging Kelly, whom he described as a retired aerospace engineer and a “sportsman” who had licenses for legally owning a variety of firearms, NBC News reported.
MAGA conspiracy theorists have helped turn Arizona, which has seen historic shifts toward Democratic politicians in recent years, into a hotbed of extremism — and a target for violent extremists outside the state. For the first time, the state’s governor, two U.S. senators, secretary of state and attorney general are all Democrats. And Democrats are now vying to win full control of the state Legislature for the first time in nearly 60 years.
A lot of far-right fury has been conjured up in the meantime. This week, an Alabama man received prison time after making death threats against Arizona election workers. And recent reports have highlighted the spate of violent threats that election workers in the state have been facing more broadly.
And now, in Arizona, we seem to have yet another example of an extremist who’s willing to deploy violent threats in an effort to intimidate those seen as opponents to the MAGA cause.
Ja’han Jones is The ReidOut Blog writer. He’s a futurist and multimedia producer focused on culture and politics. His previous projects include “Black Hair Defined” and the “Black Obituary Project.”
Politics
Right-wing Muslim activist resigns from Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission
President Donald Trump’s so-called Religious Liberty Commission, which is filled with right-wing zealotsappears to be coming apart at the seams.
Last week’s resignation of Sameerah Munshi, formerly the only Muslim woman selected as one of the commission’s advisers, underscores the religious divisions that are causing disarray for the panel and the conservative movement more broadly.
Munshi is a conservative activist who has advocated for allowing parents to opt out of lesson plans related to LGBTQ+ issues, a stance the White House has praised for its rejection of “radical gender ideology.” She said her resignation was due to two things: the commission’s expulsion of conservative activist Carrie Prejean Boller and the Trump administration’s war with Iran.
I recently wrote about how Boller’s removal, which followed a heated argument at a commission hearing over antisemitism, has fueled allegations of anti-Catholicism within the MAGA movement. Boller recently appeared on an episode of Tucker Carlson’s podcast for a chummy chat about her removal. And Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., requested last week that the House Oversight and Judiciary committees review her ouster.
In addition to that, Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission is being sued over its lack of diversity. (The White House has said the panel is intended to reflect a “diversity of faith traditions, professional backgrounds and viewpoints.”)
So Munshi’s resignation is just the latest negative publicity for the commission.
“I resign in protest of two deeply troubling developments: the official removal of Carrie Prejean Boller for her deeply held beliefs about Palestine and the federal government’s illegal war against Iran, undertaken without clear constitutional or congressional authorization,” Munshi wrote on Substack.
“Ultimately, I will have to stand before God and answer to Him for my role in this commission,” she added. “I ask His forgiveness if I have legitimized their evil or the evil of this administration in any way. I ask Him to keep my intentions pure and to guide me toward paths that bring true benefit to my community.”
Boller’s removal has also helped fuel right-wing antipathy toward the Rev. Paula White, who Boller has said was behind a “witch hunt” that led to her ouster. During their conversation, Boller and Carlson took turns bashing White, a controversial preacher of the prosperity gospel who has served as religious adviser to Trump.
Some evangelicals in the MAGA movement were apoplectic when White was chosen to lead the White House Faith Office. And now it appears the chickens have come home to roost as her involvement with Trump’s White House threatens the MAGA movement’s religious coalition.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.
Politics
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