Whitmer blames Trump after FBI 'foils plot' to kidnap Michigan governor
The FBI was able to infiltrate right-wing group and shut down plot before it materialized, says Fox News contributor Ted Williams.
A man who has been accused of an attempted kidnap plot against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, D-Mich., also reportedly made threats targeting President Trump.
Barry Croft, of Delaware, is said to have posted numerous threats against elected officials on his Facebook page, including a comment about hanging Trump, according to an unsealed FBI search warrant affidavit obtained by The Detroit News.
Former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton were among the other prominent political figures mentioned.
The site reported on Wednesday that the FBI was able to search the Facebook account of Croft, which is said to have been filled with violent images and rhetoric.
The affidavit said one Facebook post in May showed an image of Trump with a caption reading, “True colors shining through, wanna hang this mf’er too!!!%”
Another post the next day said, “I say we hang everything currently governing us, they’re all guilty!!% And what a deterrent, Rope!!!%”
BOMB MATERIALS FOUND DURING INVESTIGATION INTO ALLEGED WHITMER KIDNAPPING PLOT: REPORT
Croft is one of six purported members of an extremist paramilitary group accused of scheming to kidnap Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer because of her shutdown orders to control the coronavirus.
Some Democrats, including Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, blamed the president’s rhetoric for helping to incite the planned acts against Whitmer.
Whitmer has made similar comments about inflammatory rhetoric originating from the White House.
In her first public comments on the plot, Whitmer earlier this month thanked the FBI, Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel and state police for “bringing these sick and depraved men to justice.” She argued that Trump has provided tacit support to radical groups by refusing to condemn white supremacy, referencing the president’s comment during last week’s debate that the Proud Boys, a far-right group unaffiliated with the kidnapping plot, should ‘stand back and stand by.’”
“Just last week, the president of the United States stood before the American people and refused to condemn white supremacists and hate groups like these two Michigan militia groups,” Whitmer said at a press conference. “‘Stand back and stand by,” he told them. Stand back and stand by. Hate groups heard the president’s words not as a rebuke but as a rallying cry, as a call to action.”
During a campaign visit Tuesday to Lansing, Michigan, Trump appeared to refer to the alleged plot when he said, “It was our people that helped her out with her problem. I mean, we’ll have to see if it’s a problem. ... She blamed me, and it was our people that helped her. I don’t get it.”
Croft, whom the affidavit described as a long-haul truck driver, was ordered transferred to Michigan this month. A federal judge in Grand Rapids, Michigan, ruled during an Oct. 16 preliminary hearing there was enough evidence against five other suspects in the alleged kidnap conspiracy to send the case to a grand jury for possible indictments.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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