Trump's Politics Kill: PA Man Who Beheaded Father Rants About The Border
Republicans believe that they are exploiting a political issue on the border, but the murder in Pennsylvania highlights the dangers of radicalization.
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A Gruesome Murder With A Familiar Political Theme
ABC27 reported on the murder in Bucks County, PA:
Police said Michael Mohn’s wife, Denise Mohn, arrived home and found the body about 7 p.m. Tuesday. Responding officers found Mohn’s body in the first floor bathroom and his head inside a plastic bag in a kitchen pot placed in a first-floor bedroom, according to a police affidavit. Officers said they found bloody rubber gloves in a bedroom on the second floor. Denise Mohn said her husband’s white Toyota Corolla and her son were both missing.
Police said the YouTube video, which was more than 14 minutes long, showed Justin Mohn picking up his father’s decapitated head and identifying him by name. Police said it appeared Mohn was reading from a script as he railed about the government.
Describing Mohn’s rant as railing about the government misses the point.
Here are some important details from CNN, “Police became aware of the YouTube video that you've been talking about that not only shows this suspect Mohn holding his father's body part, but also he was ranting about the Biden administration, the border, and even at one point declaring himself the acting president based on martial law.”
Video:
Mohn also referred to his father, who was a government employee, as a traitor.
Now, where would someone get the idea that the border is in crisis, Biden is to blame, and government employees are traitors?
These are all talking points that Fox News, conservative media, the Republican Party, and Donald Trump have been relentlessly hammering.
The media has mostly ignored this. For example, the local news report that I quoted above refers to Mohn’s rant as being about ‘the government.’
Donald Trump has been radicalizing his supporters toward violence for years, so the press and the nation shouldn’t be shocked when that radicalization manifests itself in horrific crimes. We’ll discuss the real-world consequences of the right’s rhetoric below.
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