Biden Cites the Farcical FBI-Assisted Plot To Kidnap Gretchen Whitmer as an Example of Political Violence

The plot to kidnap the Michigan governor was in large part concocted and encouraged by paid FBI informants and their Bureau handlers.

President Joe Biden's condemnation of political violence Sunday night following the attempted assassination of his Republican rival, Donald Trump, listed a number of recent such incidents, but it also included the curious case of the alleged plot to kidnap Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

"We cannot—we must not go down this road in America," Biden said. "We've traveled it before throughout our history. Violence has never been the answer, whether it's with members of Congress in both parties being targeted in the shot, or a violent mob attacking the Capitol on January 6th, or a brutal attack on the spouse of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, or information and intimidation on election officials, or the kidnapping plot against a sitting governor, or an attempted assassination on Donald Trump."

The inclusion of the would-be Whitmer kidnappers is a bit of continued gaslighting by the Biden administration, because the plot was in large part concocted and encouraged by paid FBI informants and their Bureau handlers.

The arrest of six Michigan militia members who plotted to kidnap Whitmer before the 2020 presidential election grabbed national headlines and stoked fears of rising right-wing extremism. However, the federal case against the plotters unraveled as court documents and news investigations revealed that the FBI used no less than a dozen of confidential informants and two undercover agents to gather intel on the group. 

As Reason's Jacob Sullum noted, "During a June 2020 meeting highlighted by the FBI, for example, it was an informant who argued that kidnapping was necessary."

"We have a saying in my office," one FBI special agent told a confidential informant in the case. "Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story."

That's why two of the defendants charged in the Whitmer conspiracy were acquitted, and two others were only convicted after a mistrial that stunned and embarrassed the FBI.

As I explained in a 2022 Reason magazine feature, "It's (Almost) Always the Feds," the FBI has a long history of using its sprawling network of paid informants to locate and egg on would-be radicals.

Despite persistent criticisms from civil liberties groups that the FBI is manufacturing terror plots to ensnare young men with limited to no ability to carry them out, the federal government has been enormously successful in prosecuting these kinds of cases because of the high bar to prove entrapment.

The near-collapse of the Whitmer kidnapping prosecution didn't put the spotlight on domestic extremism and political violence but rather the FBI's eagerness to turn the stoned fantasies of radicals into terror plots involving bombed bridges and assassinations.

"You know, the political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated," Biden said. "It's time to cool it down. And we all have a responsibility to do that."

That presumably applies to the FBI as well.

Comments

[Minadin]

Assisted? Created, planned, and perpetrated?

[Don't look at me!]

Biden has a head full of oatmeal.

[MatthewSlyfield]

Please do not insult ... oatmeal.

[Dillinger]

the plots probably do have ties …

[AT]

Hey guys, I want you raid Mar-a-lago to doctor the scene so we can get useful optics for our narrative against Trump. Shoot to kill if you have to.

[Longtobefree]

So Biden wants to purge the F.B.I. agents guilty of insurrection - where is the downside?

[mad.casual]

So, there’s an old, urban legend about how, if you’ve got a body to bury, you dig a hole 6 ft. deep. Toss the body in. Add 3 ft. of dirt. Then toss in some of your drug stash or some other stolen goods so that if the police do show up with the dogs. They only dig down enough to find the drugs and then, having found evidence of your guilt quit digging.

In that vein: “a brutal attack on the spouse of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi” wasn’t a political attack and, aside from the Capitol police, Jan. 6th didn’t really have any violence.

The whole thing would seem to be shit-flinging by Biden in hopes that something sticks and gaslighting on the part of C.J. to passively insinuate or cede that Jan. 6th was violent and/or that the attack on Paul Pelosi was somehow associated with divisive political culture or rhetoric.

Once again kids, these are the same stooges who, upon discovering being denied the ability to refuse that Biden was dementia-addled, started nose-tweaking, eye-gouging, and blaming each other for not noticing sooner. No matter how much you hate the media in this country, you don’t hate them enough.

[VinniUSMC (Banana Republic Day 5/30/24)]

In that vein: “a brutal attack on the spouse of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi” wasn’t a political attack and, aside from the Capitol police, Jan. 6th didn’t really have any violence.

Stop bringing up facts. Only Leftist's feelings matter.

[StevenF]

FBI CREATED, not assisted.

[MasterThief]

Huh. Interesting. Should we address that the FBI is on the suspect list of actors that might have had a hand in the assassination attempt?

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

See, Biden lies as much as Trump, but he does it with state approval. And media back-up.

[Mickey Rat]

Biden is what they call a "normal" politician, therefore his lies are part of the political game is played and are of little consequence. Trump is an "abnormal" politically, therefore his deceitful and hyperbole, as well as some of his truths, are beyond the pale and are dangerous.

[BYODB]

Ok, so with that in mind is it simply beyond the pale that this shooter might have been in contact with some wire-eared stranger?

Yeah, probably, but maybe not the example one would want to use unless you're trying to make people ask that question.

[TJJ2000]

Ya know the last time we had...
"rising right-wing extremism"
Slavery was ended.

The leftard narrative is such a clown show.

[B G]

Biden's is a similar logic to the offer of post-covid "amnesty" floated by the Atlantic in 2023; imagining those who posted claims which ultimately proved to be true but were suppressed as "misinformation" (or worse, as "malinformation") and those who ordered and enforced the censorship were roughly at a similar level of "mistakes were made" and as such both sides should simply treat the past as gone and to agree to go forward without any further recriminations or need for any lessons learned.

Now that 8 years of calling their opposition "literally Hitler", and "an existential threat to the republic" whose supporters are "domestic terrorists" has led to what appears to be someone taking the idea that he must be stopped "by any means necessary" into their own hands (with an assist from some major oversights by Secrete Service when defining an appropriate perimeter in areas where hunting is a common activity), it seems like Biden is apparently ready to ask Dems to maybe slow down on the dehumanization of their political opponents (or those in their party who stray a bit too far from the allowable orthodoxy) if the opposition stops calling calling him senile for using phrases like "do my goodest" and "we're going to not lose sight of the fact of who we are" in situations where he had no reason at all to be off script.

Or maybe he'd be willing to stop calling opposing voters "domestic terrorists" if they'd just start voting for him instead of for other candidates?

After all, "mistakes were made" on both sides. The Dems will admit that their rhetoric was a bit excessive if their opponents will admit that they brought the weaponization of government power onto themselves by refusing to embrace the agenda of the ruling party once Biden took the oath of office and give up on all these devisive attempts to get the courts to prevent the wanton abuse of executive power and wholesiale violation of constitutional rights using the literal mechanisms of fascist regimes.

Imagine if this kind of "amnesty" had been proposed in the aftermath of segregation in the south. We'll say we're sorry for empowering the KKK to take over a political party and enact laws intended to oppress and disenfranchise a large portion of the local population if they'll accept responsibility for being born black in our state and not choosing to leave, then we can just let bygones be bygones.

[shadydave]

The Whitmer "plot" in a functioning government would put the existence of the FBI in its current form at risk. Just as Waco and Ruby Ridge would put the existence of the ATF at risk. I mean it's literally the weaponization of government agencies against its constituents for the purpose of consolidating government power.

Because yeah, if they've shown they'll do this stuff, then it is not unreasonable to ask questions about all manner of things from the Las Vegas shooting, to the Trump assassination attempt to whatever. The thing is about "conspiracy theories" is that once people demonstrate a willingness to conspire...

[Marshal]

It's interesting neither Bidon nor CJ bring up the case of Hodgkinson explicitly trying to murder Republicans playing baseball. We can't remind people the clearest examples of political violence are from left wingers.