Following Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election and the Trump administration refusing to accept the results, stoking ire and spreading misinformation among the president’s supporters, some disgruntled Trump voters are getting violent. Such is the case in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, where a 50-year-old man attacked an elderly couple who was holding a home-made sign supporting President-elect Biden.
The assailant, Mark A. Ulsaker, has been charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, threats of violence, assault of a police officer, and resisting arrest, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. He is being held on $25,000 bail. Ulsaker reportedly drove by a group who was holding signs in support of Biden, five days after the November 3 election. Among the group was a married couple, a 78-year-old woman and her 80-year-old husband.
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According to their complaint, Ulsaker slowed his pickup truck down and shoulted a vulgarity at the group, which they ignored. He then came back wielding a golf club and approached them from behind. Ulsaker began swinging it at the couple, which reportedly broke when it hit the chair the wife was sitting in, and he punched the husband in the head. Ulsaker also drove his pickup truck over the curb and towards the wife, in what he admitted was an attempt to scare her.
Police tracked Ulsaker after a witness wrote down his license plate number. When they arrived at his home, Ulsaker reportedly tried to punch the officer and only stopped resisting after being threatened with a taser. He admitted to “flipping off” the group and said their signs enraged him because he is a Trump supporter. The Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.
While no one has been seriously hurt following the election results, there have been plenty of threats. People counting ballots in Arizona and Pennsylvania had to contend with angry mobs of armed people accusing them of tampering with the ballots after Trump demanded those states stop counting votes.
This is also an extension of the fear-mongering the Trump administration has spread over the course of the past four years. This summer, armed groups of white supremacist Trump supporters showed up to the Michigan capitol. And, as recently as last month, authorities discovered far-right conspirators plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Trump has been accused of trying to incite violence among his supporters in the past, and some people worry that his administration’s continued lies and refusal to concede the election will have dire consequences. This is one example that could have ended much worse than it did.