FACT FOCUS: Heritage Foundation leader wrong to say most political violence is committed by the left

WASHINGTON — The head of a conservative think tank on Thursday misrepresented partisan differences in political violence in the United States, falsely suggesting that people who support left-wing causes commit more violence than those who support right-wing causes.

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KEVIN ROBERTS, CHAIRMAN OF THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: “Most of the political violence of the last 25 years has been initiated by the left.”

THE FACTS: Roberts’ comments came in response to questions about comments earlier this month in which he said the country was in the midst of “the second American Revolution,” which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.

He told reporters Thursday that he considers himself a historian of the American Revolution and that his comments about a second revolution were a reference to “ambitious policy plans” Republicans have if former President Donald Trump wins the 2024 election. Roberts’ organization has proposed a sweeping overhaul of the federal government, known as Project2025.

Roberts said his comments about political violence should be placed in historical context.

However, a closer look at the available evidence shows that right-wing groups have been guilty of political violence more often in recent American history.

Two years ago, a team of researchers from four universities examined court records and other data relating to 3,500 extremists active in the US between 1948 and 2022. The individuals were divided into three groups: left-wing, right-wing, and related to Islamic extremism. While some in the database had committed violent acts, others had raised money for extremist groups, volunteered, or spoken out in their favor.

Far-right extremists were just as likely to commit violent acts as those motivated by Islamic extremism, the researchers found. Far-left extremists were a distant third.

Gary LaFree, a professor at the University of Maryland and one of the study’s co-authors, said violent acts by left-wing groups have been declining for decades, following violence by radical groups such as the Weather Underground, a far-left militant organization founded in 1969.

In recent years, violence by right-wing groups has far outpaced violence by left-wing groups, said LaFree, founder and director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, which studies extremism and political violence.

“There are very few left-wing cases these days,” LaFree said.

Increasingly, he said, many of those responsible for political violence embrace “confusing ideologies” that combine a rejection of authority with conservative views, for example, or so-called anarchists who say they also support authoritarianism. “Or they don’t have a strong ideological commitment at all,” LaFree added.

Questions about political violence and its place in American democracy are gaining renewed attention after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, a Republican, on Saturday. Some Trump supporters, including Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance, have blamed Democratic rhetoric for the shooting.

However, the attempt to assassinate Trump is just the latest in a string of violence against elected officials in more than a decade.

Democratic U.S. Representative Gabby Giffordswho was seriously injured in a shooting outside an Arizona supermarket in 2011, had been threatened and had the windows of her congressional office in Tucson smashed after she voted for President Barack Obama’s health care reform. Although a motive because the shooting was never confirmed.

Republican U.S. Representative Steve Scalisenow House Speaker, was shot in 2017 during a charity baseball game practice. His assailant reportedly had grudges against President Donald Trump and the GOP. Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was targeted a foiled kidnapping operation discovered in 2020.

In 2022, a man broke into the San Francisco home of then-Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and her husband abusedfractured his skull. Last year, a man with a history of mental illness went to Democratic U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly’s district office in Fairfax, Virginia, to kill him with a baseball bat. Connolly wasn’t there, so the man two staff members attacked.

The largest manifestation of political violence in recent years was the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, when a group of Trump supporters clashed with police, destroyed the Capitol, and attempted to block the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election.

Trump’s own inflammatory words and his unsubstantiated lies about the 2020 election were accused for encouraging the January 6 attack, and others violent actions by supporters. Trump too mocked the hammer attack about Paul Pelosi, 80.

Years of research have consistently shown that Americans of both political parties strongly oppose political violence, said Sean Westwood, a political scientist at Dartmouth College and director of the Polarization Research Lab.

People also tend to exaggerate the violent intent of people with differing ideologies, Westwood said, with one side believing the other is much more willing to use violence to advance its political agenda. That’s one reason it’s so important for leaders from both parties to come together to call for unity and peaceful discourse, Westwood said.

“Americans hate violence,” Westwood said. “Even the most polarized people don’t support partisan violence.”

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