So much for the “he criticized Democrats” narrative that formed around Cody Balmer. The arsonist targeted Josh Shapiro and his family over perceived slights to “the people of Palestine,” according to police search warrants, as well as Shapiro’s Jewish faith.
The timing of the attack — on Passover — strongly suggested domestic terrorism in the first place. Now police and prosecutors claim they have evidence to back up that assumption, as well as evidence of Balmer’s left-wing extremism … in the familiar form of Che Fever:
The suspected arsonist who allegedly tried to kill Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro decided to firebomb his official residence because of “what he wants to do to the Palestinian people,” according to a search warrant signed by Pennsylvania State Police.
Investigators obtained several warrants as part of the investigation into the early Sunday morning arson attack, including for suspect Cody Balmer’s storage unit, electronic devices and parents’ home, where he told a Dauphin County judge he had recently been living.
Balmer, 38, targeted Shapiro “based upon perceived injustices to the people of Palestine,” one of the warrants said, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
What is their evidence? Apparently, it comes from Balmer himself, who called 911 after the attack on the governor’s mansion:
Cody Balmer, the man accused of setting fire to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence, allegedly told 911 operators he targeted the governor in part because of his views on the war in Gaza, according to a search warrant obtained by news site PennLive.
The warrant said Balmer called 911 early Sunday morning after the fire at the governor’s residence, and said Shapiro needs to know he “will not take part in his plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people,” according to the PennLive report. …
According to the PennLive report, Balmer also told 911 operators Shapiro needed to “stop having my friends killed,” and that “our people have been put through too much by that monster,” the warrant said.
The warrant notes Balmer’s “intonation and cadence” sounded like his was “possibly reading from a script,” according to PennLive.
A script? That could suggest coordination with others, although it could also just show that Balmer had planned it thoroughly enough to have a statement pre-written for the attack. You can bet that the state police in Pennsylvania and the FBI will pursue both possibilities in their investigation.
That explains why prosecutors called it a “hate crime” yesterday. They didn’t reveal why, but the Dauphin County DA’s office made it clear they would proceed on that basis:
The district attorney of Dauphin County said a search warrant connected to Sunday’s arson attack on the Governor’s Residence was a possible hate crime.
District Attorney Fran Chardo said, “We will use the statement [by Balmer] regarding Palestine as evidence the defendant targeted the Governor because he is Jewish. We allege that this was a hate crime. Of course, the defendant is presumed to be innocent.”
Authorities said Cody Balmer harbored a hatred for Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
“A hatred” on an individual basis does not trigger hate-crime prosecutions. The hatred has to be group-based, as in a hatred for Jews. The Passover timing strongly suggested this anyway, as I wrote above, but police knew on Sunday that this was a “hate crime” by a radical Palestinian sympathizer.
In fact, that makes this more than a hate crime. It makes this into an act of domestic terrorism — political violence intended to subvert public policy and democratic governance. The state of Pennsylvania may or may not have a statute to charge domestic terrorism, but the federal government certainly does. The Department of Justice can bring that charge separately and in parallel to whatever prosecution that Dauphin County DAs conduct against Balmer, and they should. Double jeopardy does not apply, under the separate sovereigns doctrine, and the necessity to discourage such violence and terrorism demand full prosecution to the greatest extent of the law.
As for the Protection Racket Media, they continue to play the “we may never know” game about Balmer’s leftist political views. The word is already out on social media among the “Journolist” set that Balmer is just an apolitical nutcase, despite his de rigueur fandom of Che:
Who tried to murder the Jewish governor of Pennsylvania?
An antisemitic Marxist. https://t.co/qBaBZr7zYd pic.twitter.com/eyHqaOacD6
— Nathan Brand (@NathanBrandWA) April 16, 2025
It’s always Che Fever for leftists, no? If Balmer had even worn a MAGA hat once, the Protection Racket Media would have rushed to condemn Trump and every one of his supporters for being part of a violent movement. Despite almost two years of leftist violence on campuses over ‘Palestine’ — not to mention months of urban riots in 2020 — the Protection Racket Media finds itself entirely nonplussed about claims of “left-wing extremism,” as Bonchie reminds us today:
Just to recap, we’ve now had a CEO murdered, two assassination attempts against a now-president, a governor nearly killed with his family, and businesses burned to the ground…all by left-wingers.
But CNN just can’t find any examples of left-wing extremism.
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) April 16, 2025
They won’t find it in this case, either … because they will refuse to look. As always.
Update: I had originally wrote that the information came from an unsealed indictment, but it came from police search warrants. I had meant to correct that before publication but overlooked it. It’s corrected now.
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