A right-wing extremist named Elwyn Nels Fossedal was arrested yesterday after he publicly announced his compulsion to assassinate President Obama. While standing in line at the post office last month, Fossedal reportedly declared, “If President Obama was here I would shoot him right there and kill him right now.”
You know, because Fossedal’s a patriot (note the flag shirt above).
And he refused to renounce his threat. According to the criminal complaint, when he was confronted by the Secret Service, Fossedal “repeated the threat using different words. He also made a number of additional threats towards the President.”
You might not be surprised to learn several things about this would-be assassin. He’s an 81-year-old former employee with Pfizer, and, yep, he’s a Birther who believes the president wasn’t born in the United States and is therefore illegally occupying the White House. He once wrote online, “We need to throw the Muslim in the White House, OUT,” and he’s remarked that the Affordable Care Act is grounds for impeachment.
Fossedal is also “proficient in the use of various firearms,” according to investigators. On his Facebook page, Fossedal shared a link to a post by the National Association for Gun Rights accusing Hillary Clinton and others of being “gun grabbers.”
Oh, and he’s evidently a Rush Limbaugh fan.
My visceral disdain for Limbaugh is well documented, but there’s no evidence suggesting that Rush Limbaugh is to blame for Fossedal wanting to kill the president… [CONTINUE READING]