Police have arrested a man they accuse of using incendiary devices to set the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion ablaze in the wee hours of Sunday morning, causing major damage to the luxury residence and forcing Gov Josh Shapiro and his family to evacuate. The alleged arsonist’s social media posts reportedly show a history of animus against President Biden and those who voted for him.
Trump on the arson and attempted murder of PA Governor Shapiro.
“The attacker was not a fan of Trump, he wasn’t a fan of anybody, was just a whack job.”
“This cannot be allowed to happen.” pic.twitter.com/KxSdBgUmxG
— Sara Rose 🇺🇸🌹 (@saras76) April 14, 2025
Authorities say Cody A. Balmer, a 38-year-old resident of the capital city of Harrisburg, managed to leap the perimeter fence, break into the mansion and then use homemade incendiary devices to start multiple fires before fleeing the scene. While police were alerted to a breach before the fires were started, they failed to locate the arsonist before he did his work, and also failed to find him before he scaled the same fence and escaped. More than a dozen hours later, Balmer was arrested at an unspecified Harrisburg location.
Channeling a “l’etat, c’est moi” vibe, Gov. Josh Shapiro told reporters, “Last night, we experienced an attack, not just on our family, but on the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I want you all to know that your prayers lift us up, and in this moment of darkness, we are choosing to see light.”
Shapiro was jarred from his sleep at 2 am by a state trooper who banged his door to alert the 51-year-old, first-term governor to the emergency, and then rush him and his family out of the structure. Last year, Shapiro escaped a different kind of harm when he wasn’t chosen as Kamala Harris’s running mate.
A Daily Mail exploration of Balmer’s social media profiles uncovered a photo of him pointing a handgun at the camera, various posts expressing disdain for President Biden and his supporters, and a potential allusion to political violence.
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“Biden supporters shouldn’t exist,” he posted to Facebook in January 2021. “Where were you his first run? Well aware of the trash he is. As for the second, still knew what scum he is. Now why did y’all forget? What, because he did?”
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Five days later, he posted, “RIP Joe Biden… Whoops that’s in may, #notmypresidenteither”
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In another post, he said “Knowing is half the battle… the other half is extreme violence.” From the Daily Mail report, it’s unclear what “knowing” Balmer was referring to.
State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens gave Balmer high marks for his deliberate execution of the raid: “He clearly had a plan. He was very methodical in his approach, and moved through it without a lot of hurry.”
Balmer will face various charges that are expected to include attempted murder, aggravated arson, terrorism and aggravated assault against an enumerated person. (Yes, that last charge represents the state valuing the lives of government employees more than it values yours.) The lack of any indication of conspiracy charges suggests police initially believe Balmer acted alone.
Police say they have not yet determined a motive for the fiery but mostly peaceful attack, and it’s uncertain if the timing — at the beginning of the Jewish Passover holiday — relates to the fact that Shapiro is a Jew. Contemplating that possibility, Shapiro struck a defiant tone:
“If he was trying to terrorize our family, our friends, the Jewish community, who joined us for a Passover Seder in that room last night, hear me on this: we celebrated our faith last night, proudly and in a few hours, we will celebrate our second Seder of Passover.”
Shapiro also denounced political violence, whatever its target:
“This kind of violence is becoming far too common in our society, and I don’t give a damn if it’s coming from one particular side or the other. Directed at one particular party or another, one particular person or another. It is not OK. And it has to stop, we have to be better than this.”
However, in September, Shapiro enthused over a different kind of political violence, as he hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the enormous General Dynamics facility in Scranton that manufactures 155mm artillery shells that the United States has supplied Ukraine in mass quantities.
Shapiro faced a social media backlash when he signed the shells destined for the bloody Western proxy war against Russia.
There’s Gov Josh Shapiro with Zelensky signing artillery shells at a weapons plant in Scranton, PA
For those unfamiliar, Shapiro is the guy who said Palestinians are too “battle-minded” to make peace pic.twitter.com/QjyTTVVV0v
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) September 23, 2024
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/14/2025 – 12:25
