GOP Silent as Mormon Church Gunman Identified as ‘Ultra MAGA’ Trump Supporter

[enslaved1]

https://dailyboulder.com/gop-silent-as-mormon-church-gunman-identified-as-ultra-maga-trump-supporter/

As the nation reels from another devastating mass shooting—this time at a Mormon church in suburban Michigan—Republican leaders have remained notably silent following revelations that the gunman was a devoted Trump supporter who once proudly wore the label “Ultra MAGA.”

Thomas Jacob Sanford, a 40-year-old Marine veteran from Grand Blanc Township, plowed his pickup truck into a local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Sunday before opening fire on worshippers. Ten people were shot. Four are dead. The church was later engulfed in flames after Sanford used an accelerant to set it ablaze. Two of the victims died from gunshot wounds, and two more bodies were recovered from the debris.

snip

But as photos and social media posts surfaced showing Sanford in a camouflage Trump 2020 shirt that read “Make Liberals Cry Again,” and a Trump-Pence sign still visible on his front lawn just months ago, the political implications became harder to ignore.

So far, Republican leaders have said nothing.

Very muckraking, pot-stirring looking site, interestingly enough not showing any of the photos or even screenshots.  But, lies get around the world before the truth can get it's pants on. 

[SVPete]

Proggies think they finally got the MAGA gun nut they've long sought. Thing is, MAGA-folk, Rs and conservatives don't generally hate religion and religious people, so Sanford probably had a beef with that particular Mormon stake or the Mormon church generally. Needless to say when facts do come out about his motive/purpose, at won't matter to Progs when it doesn't fit their narrative.

[SVPete]

The guy does seem to be in the conservative realm, https://justthenews.com/government/local/city-council-candidate-saw-trump-sign-mormon-church-alleged-shooters-house-says-he :

During the roughly 20-minute conversation, Johns said Sanford told him that he had moved to Utah at one point to plow snow and had a relationship with a woman there whose family was Mormon.
...
After Sanford asked Johns if he believed in God, the candidate said, "yes," and that he's Christian and a member of Solid Rock Community Church, Sanford asked him how he felt about Mormonism, the Mormon bible, the role Jesus plays in the religion, the history of the LDS church, and Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of Mormonism.

Sanford eventually said Mormonism is "the antichrist," according to Johns. The candidate said that Sanford's animosity toward the church didn't seem violent — “it was very much standard anti-LDS talking points that you would find on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook.”
Google Maps taken in June of Sanford's home in Burton, Mich., show the Trump-Vance sign on a fence, propped up above a stop sign, The Guardian reported.

Also, a family photo posted on Facebook shows Sanford posing with his wife and 10-year-old son wearing a Re-elect Trump 2020 T-shirt. The shirt has the logo “Make Liberals Cry Again.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the "Fox & Friends" TV show, “From what I understand, based on my conversations with the FBI director, all they know right now is this was an individual who hated people of the Mormon faith.”

His animosity towards the Mormon church was his personal beef, not anything conservative/R/MAGA. FWIW, the "What We Believe" for Solid Rock Community Church, Sanford is standard Evangelical fare, with no reference/allusion, direct or indirect, to Mormonism.