Did an X post by podcaster Alec Lace imply the life of Democrats is "at stake" if they vote against Republicans or MAGA? No, that's taken out of context: It originally quoted one of his own posts speculating that the murder of Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman was to be blamed on "her base" becoming "unhinged" after she voted a certain way, but this quote was omitted from screenshots that went viral. The "us" in Lace's post presumably referred to this "base", not to MAGA or Republicans. Authorities have not yet released a motive for the murder although a suspect named Vance Boelter has been arrested.
An example of the implied claim could be seen in this Facebook post (archived here) published by Bryan Tyler Cohen on June 19, 2025, which contained a screenshot of Lace's post along with the words:
WOW: This is a tweet from a MAGA Republican.
The post by Lace in the screenshot read:
🚨 Make no mistake. What happened to Melissa Hortman was a message to all Democrats. You vote against us and your life is at stake!
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Fri Jun 20 07:12:31 2025 UTC)
Lace's June 14, 2025 post (archived here) quote posted another of his posts that was not visible in the screenshot on Facebook.
🚨 Make no mistake. What happened to Melissa Hortman was a message to all Democrats. You vote against us and your life is at stake! https://t.co/h6W7JQx82t
-- Alec Lace (@AlecLace) June 14, 2025
The quoted post (archived here) speculated a vote by Horman made "her base... become unhinged" and implied this could have been the motive of her killing:
🚨Melissa Hortman sounded fearful after voting to repeal healthcare for illegal aliens
Almost as if she knew that her base would become unhinged
She and her husband were tragically shot and killed. A targeted attack, per Gov. Walz.
Was her vote the motive?
According to reporting by PBS (archived here), a suspect named Vance Boelter has been arrested for the killings, and acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said at a press conference that:
"Boelter planned his attack carefully" by researching his intended victims and their families and conducting surveillance of their homes and taking notes, Thompson said. Though the targets were Democrats and elected officials, Thompson said it was too soon to speculate on any sort of political ideology that could explain his motives.
PBS further reported:
Authorities did not give a motive as they announced Boelter's arrest.
A list of about 70 names was found in writings recovered from the fake police vehicle that was left at the crime scene, said two law enforcement officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the ongoing investigation. The writings and list of names included prominent state and federal lawmakers and community leaders, along with abortion rights advocates and information about health care facilities, according to the officials.
A Minnesota official told AP lawmakers who had been outspoken in favor of abortion rights were on the list. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.
