A month after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the Justice Department has charged a California man with threatening to murder conservative commentator Benny Johnson and his family.
FBI agents arrested George Russell Isbell, Jr., 69, of San Diego, on October 7.
Johnson, a popular conservative podcaster with some four million followers, said at a news conference with Attorney General Pam Bondi that Isbell threatened him because he is a conservative Trump supporter.
The Democratic Party, Johnson said, has normalized political violence.
Isbell, the criminal complaint alleges, “mailed a letter from San Diego threatening to injure his victim, a media personality located in Tampa, Florida, and telling his victim that the victim needed ‘to be exterminated,’” DOJ reported:
[Isbell] referenced one of [Johnson’s] friends, Mr. Charlie Kirk, a conservative political activist who had recently been killed during a public engagement on a college campus. After writing that he hoped that the American flag “strangles the life out of you,” the letter went on to state: “Maybe someone will blow your head off!!! We can hope! Planning any public engagements? Love to see your head explode and your blood stain the concrete red. What a sight!”
DOJ did not release the full text of the letter. If convicted, Isbell could land five years in prison.
Florida-based Johnson was close to Kirk, and opened his remarks at the presser with Bondi by noting Kirk’s assassination, the attempted assassination of President Trump, the shooting of Catholic school kids in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in August, and the attempted mass murder at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas, Texas. All the shooters, he noted, were “left-wing extremists.”
“If it’s happening every single week, is that extreme or has the Democrat party mainstreamed violence as a political tool,” Johnson asked:
The individual who wrote me described why he wanted me dead. I was a white cis Christian Trump supporter. They described in great detail how I would be killed in an open field, just like Charlie. How much blood would come out of my head, neck when it was blown off. This individual described orphaning my four beautiful children and widowing my wife with great joy.
Johnson then pointed to Virginia and the recently revealed text messages and remarks by Jay Jones, far-left Democratic candidate for attorney general. Jones told a GOP legislator that he wanted to murder former House of Delegates Speaker Todd Gilbert. Jones also hoped that someone would murder Gilbert’s children in front of their mother, and called them “little fascists.”
“You might want to say, ‘another left-wing radical, another extremist, and to that, I would like to direct your attention to the state of Virginia,” Johnson said:
Democrats have nominated and are about to vote for the chief law enforcement officer in that state, a man who has done the exact same thing. An individual who’s calling for the assassination, by bullets, of Republicans that he disagrees with, the killing of their children, the slaughtering of, as he says, “little fascists.” Are my four innocent beautiful children “little fascists?”
Violence has been mainstreamed by the Democrat Party. It is not extremist. It is mainstream. And we need a moment of reckoning here. This has to stop. This cycle must end. Is any Democrat courageous enough to disavow violence, to call for individuals that espouse these things, like what happened to my family, or what’s happening in Virginia, to call for those kind of candidates to step down? Will democrats vote for that? Because if you’re voting for that then implicitly, you’re encouraging, you’re endorsing it.
Over video of the speech on X, Johnson observed that “left-wing violence is exploding with copycats appearing everywhere”:
It is the greatest threat to our country today, targeting people for simply speaking the truth.
Let me be absolutely clear: We will not be silenced. We will not back down. We will not break. You lit a fire that cannot be put out.
Johnson was understandably shaken by the threat, given what happened to Kirk.
On September 10, authorities allege, Tyler Robinson shot Kirk in the neck at Utah Valley University, killing the Turning Point USA founder almost instantly.
Like threat suspect Isbell, Robinson apparently thought murdering Kirk would strike a blow against “fascism.”
Police found unspent bullets with the 30.06 Mauser used in the crime with messages on the casings.
One said, “Hey Fascist! Catch! ⬆️➡️⬇️⬇️⬇️.”
Said another, “Oh Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao Ciao Ciao.”
Bella Ciao was the anthem of the communist-influenced Italian resistance in World War II.
Unknown is whether so-called anti-fasicst groups were involved in or knew about the assassination.
As for Democrats condoning political violence, 58 members of the U.S. House voted against a resolution that condemned it and honored Kirk.