Another Republican hero is ready to take his place next to the Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse and the gun-waving McCloskeys. The newest candidate for a six-figure defense fund or a speaking slot at the Republican National Convention is 19-year-old Alexander Hillel Treisman, and his star turn is an attempted assassination of Joe Biden.
According to The Washington Post, Treisman was arrested in North Carolina in a van containing four rifles, a handgun, an explosive, and a bomb-making manual. He was also carrying over half a million dollars in cash … so maybe he doesn’t need that defense fund. The arrest came months after he had posted an image captioned with: “Should I kill Joe Biden?”
The location of Treisman’s arrest may make it seem like his plan to assassinate the Democratic nominee had not progressed that far. That’s not the case. Back in May, Treisman was in Biden’s neighborhood, eating at a Wendy’s within four miles of Biden’s home while conducting a search for Biden’s address. While he was in the area, he stopped by a New Hampshire gun store to buy a new AR-15 and inquire about night vision goggles.
It’s not as if Treisman then decided to abort his plan, because shortly after that visit to Biden’s neighborhood was when he was actually arrested. Workers at a bank in North Carolina reported an abandoned white van in the parking lot. When police arrived they found that the van actually contained Treisman, along with his collection of weapons and … something else that had nothing to do with his publicly revealed plot to kill Biden. It was the something else that actually went before a grand jury in September when Treisman was indicted ... on child pornography charges. Word about his apparently serious plot to kill Biden didn’t slip out until prosecutors were asked to give a reason why Treisman had been held so long in advance of trial. So far the guns, explosives, and social media messages threatening an assassination haven’t netted him any additional charges.
Treisman’s arrest isn’t actually the most recent one: On Wednesday, 41-year-old James Dale Reed was arrested after he threatened to kidnap and kill both Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris.
Reed’s super-subtle warning signs included visiting a home that had a Biden yard sign and leaving behind a note that read in part, “We are the ones with these scary guns. We are the ones your children have nightmares about.” The note apparently went on to describe Reed’s scheme to kidnap and kill both Democratic candidates. It’s unclear if Reed had gotten to the step of perusing Biden’s neighborhood and shopping for night vision goggles, but whatever he had done, it was enough for the Secret Service to call for his arrest.
In 2018, another of Trump’s fans in a white van, Cesar Sayoc, was arrested after sending at least 16 bombs to those he considered critics of Trump. Among those in receipt of a Sayoc package were Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Sayoc eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Sayoc’s sentencing came the same week as two mass shootings—one in which Trump fan Patrick Crusius drove to an El Paso Walmart to kill 22 predominantly Latino customers. Meanwhile, violence-obsessed Connor Betts killed nine people in Dayton, Ohio, after leaving a final Twitter message reading: "Millenials have a message for the Joe Biden generation: hurry up and die."
