A charred piano. A sung luminaire suspended by a cord in a room marked by fire. Plates scattered with ash, not far from a dinner table just free from a Passover Seder.
Burned rooms Inside the official residence of Governor Josh Shapiro de Pennsylvania were the work of a fire fire which, according to the authorities, admitted “hosting hatred” for Shapiro. The officials say that the suspect revealed that if he found the governor, he planned to beat him with a hammer.
The attack on Mr. Shapiro and his family was only the last leading attempt on the life of an American elected official. A series of violent explosions in recent years has raised alarms on the threats to which legislators have faced and the often toxic political environment of the country.
President Trump faced two assassination attempts last year, a bullet baking his ear during a rally in Pennsylvania. A group of extremists planned to remove governor Gretchen Whitmer from Michigan. A man burst into the home of the representative of Nancy Pelosi and assaulted her husband with a hammer. A shooter attacked the Republican members of the Congress when they practiced a baseball match, injuring the representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana.
And the same weekend as the attack on Mr. Shapiro, an unachoned FBI affidavit revealed that officials think that 17-year-old in Wisconsin killed his mother and stepfather As part of a wider assassination plot Against Mr. Trump.
However, while attacks on senior officials have shaken the Americans in both parties, Research shows This political violence as a whole is not necessarily increasing. Large -scale eruptions – with the notable exception of the riot inspired by Trump at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 – did not become more frequent. The support of Americans for acts of political violence such as murder or criminal fire remains extremely low, according to A weekly study Directed by the Research Lab polarization of Dartmouth College.
“The very publicized nature of the attacks is definitively so that the public perceives political violence as a threat to the country which is disproportionate to the real nature of the problem,” said Sean J. Westwood, professor at Dartmouth College and director of the polarization research laboratory.
But the relative rarity of political violence did not do much to settle an American audience increasingly in advance, and threats continue to flood the reception boxes of elected officials, electoral workers and journalists.
Before the 2024 elections, more than 70% of voters said they were “very worried” of political violence, according to A survey of the conference on leadership on civil and human rights.
Sunday, Mr. Shapiro stood in front of his residence, where broken and blackened windows sat behind yellow adhesive ribbon and promised to work harder as governor in the face of threats.
“This kind of violence becomes far too common in our society, and I do not care if it comes on a particular side or on the other, led by a particular part or another, or one person or another,” said Shapiro, his voice rising anger. “It’s not ok, and it must stop. We have to be better than that. “
The condemnation of the attack was rapid and bipartite.
“Thank you to God that Governor Shapiro and his family were unscathed in this attack,” said vice-president JD Vance written on social networks. “Truly disgusting violence, and I hope that the one who did it is quickly translated into justice.”
“Acts of violence have no place in our policy,” said senator Cory Booker, a neighboring New Jersey Democrat, in a statement. “Managers should be held responsible.”
Trump, who survived his life twice – and who highlighted the spectrum of domestic terrorism as a justification for his aggressive immigration program – did not publish a statement on Sunday or Monday morning. Questioned on Monday in the oval office of the attack, he said that the attacker was “probably only a wacky job”.
“Admittedly, such a thing cannot be allowed to happen,” said Trump.
The authorities have not yet revealed more information on suspect’s political tendencies, but several Jewish Democrats and groups noted that the attack on Mr. Shapiro, who is Jewish, came the first night of Passover. The authorities responsible for the application of laws did not comment if the criminal fire was the subject of an investigation as a hatred crime.
“Political violence of all kinds is never acceptable, and it is particularly unacceptable to attack a Jewish family during the first night of Passover”, the representative Hakeem Jeffries, the chief of the Democratic minority, said in a press release. “Everyone must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Federal officials and states have taken measures to deal with the threats of political violence. In 2021, the Attorney General Merrick B. Garland created a working group on the threat of elections based on the public integrity unit of the Ministry of Justice. Last year, many electoral offices were fortified with bulletproof glass and an increased security presence.
Such steps have helped to denigrate and prevent attacks before they occur. Jena Griswold, the Democratic Secretary of State of Colorado, received more than 1,800 Death threats and violent threats last year. Law enforcement officials have arrested and charged multiple people said they are responsible.
But threats have still prompted many electoral officials and local workers to resign or withdraw from working in the next elections. In Colorado, the county clerks had a turnover of around 40%, said Griswold in an interview, because “we have seen people resign because they are not willing to continue working in this type of atmosphere”.
“It is very difficult to live under this threat environment,” she said, adding how relieved she was that Mr. Shapiro and his family were safe. “It certainly has an impact on how you live your daily life, and it absolutely affected the elections here in Colorado and across the country.”