CNN host claimed the suspect’s motives were unclear.
QUICK FACTS:
- An arrest born out of what was believed to be an assassination attempt against pro-life Supreme Court Justice Bret Kavanaugh was downplayed by members of the mainstream media.
- Nicholas John Roske was arrested early on Wednesday near Kavanaugh’s Maryland home after calling police to report himself, according to law enforcement.
- Roske was carrying a gun, knife, and pepper spray and had allegedly made threats against Kavanaugh who is believed to be in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade in an upcoming decision before the Supreme Court.
- “A criminal complaint was filed today charging Nicholas John Roske, age 26, of Simi Valley, California, for federal charges of attempted murder of a Supreme Court Justice,” FBI Baltimore’s Joy Jiras said on Wednesday afternoon. “Roske is expected to have an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt today at 3:00 p.m. before U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy J. Sullivan.”
- CNN’s Whitney Wild seemingly downplayed the event, saying that the man’s motives were unclear: “We don’t yet know what the nature of the threat was. We don’t know what language the threat was, or what kind of weapon this man might have had if he had one at all because the information at this point is just so thin,” Wild said. Watch below.
DEMOCRAT LEADER’S INPUT:
- U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters, “This kind of behavior is obviously behavior that we will not tolerate. Threats of violence and actual violence against the justices of course strike at the heart of our democracy, and we will do everything we can to prevent them and hold the people who do them accountable for that reason.”
- However, earlier this month the Biden administration refused to tell protesters not to demonstrate at the homes of Supreme Court justices.
- Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki spoke on behalf of the president to simply encourage “peaceful” protests: “I know that there’s an outrage right now, I guess, about protests that have been peaceful to date, and we certainly do continue to encourage that, outside judges’ homes, and that’s the president’s position,” Psaki said about a month ago.
- The arrest of Roske came a little more than two years after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told Kavanaugh that he would “pay the price,” warning the Justice “won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”
BACKGROUND:
- The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a “Terrorism Threat Bulletin” on Tuesday, saying the U.S. “remains in a heightened threat environment” due to “several recent attacks [that] have highlighted the dynamic and complex nature of the threat environment.”
- The DHS said they “expect the threat environment to become more dynamic as several high-profile events could be exploited to justify acts of violence against a range of possible targets,” going on to say that targets could include “public gatherings, faith-based institutions, schools, racial and religious minorities, government facilities and personnel, U.S. critical infrastructure, the media, and perceived ideological opponents,” as American Faith reported Tuesday.
- “Threat actors have recently mobilized to violence due to factors such as personal grievances, reactions to current events, and adherence to violent extremist ideologies, including racially or ethnically motivated or anti-government/anti-authority violent extremism. Foreign adversaries—including terrorist organizations and nation state adversaries—also remain intent on exploiting the threat environment to promote or inspire violence, sow discord, or undermine U.S. democratic institutions. We continue to assess that the primary threat of mass casualty violence in the United States stems from lone offenders and small groups motivated by a range of ideological beliefs and/or personal grievances.”
