Republican candidate accused of orchestrating shootings targeting Democrats in New Mexico

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• Geoff Bennett:

  Police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, have linked a series of drive-by shootings targeting the homes of local Democratic politicians to a defeated Republican candidate.

  The case spotlights the troubling rise in extremist violence against elected officials across the country.

• Speaker:

  He's an election denier who doesn't want to accept the results of the election.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Former Republican candidate Solomon Pena is behind bars tonight in New Mexico, allegedly for a string of politically motivated shootings that took place after he lost his race for a state House seat in November.

• Harold Medina, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Police Chief:

  It is believed that he is the mastermind that was behind this and that was organizing this.

• Geoff Bennett:

  The charge, that Pena paid four men to shoot and damage the homes of two state legislators and two county commissioners, all Democrats.

  The shootings happened after Pena allegedly approached local lawmakers, including some whose homes were targeted, falsely claiming his election was fraudulent. No one was injured in any of the incidents, but state Senator Linda Lopez said one bullet passed through her 10-year-old daughter's bedroom.

  In a press conference late yesterday, authorities outlined key evidence that led them to Pena.

• Kyle Hartsock, Deputy Commander, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Police Department:

  The evidence that we have is not only firearm, but it's also from cell phones and electronic records, surveillance video, and multiple witnesses inside and outside of this conspiracy that have helped us weave together what occurred.

• Geoff Bennett:

  The 39-year-old lost his bid for the state House in a landslide. But he wrote on Twitter that he never conceded. A fervent supporter of Donald Trump, Pena accused his opponent of rigging the race before polls had even closed and, after the election, called himself the MAGA king.

  Tim Keller (D), Mayor of Albuquerque, New Mexico: These shootings were indeed politically motivated.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, a Democrat, condemned extremist violence while speaking with reporters.

• Tim Keller:

  This was about a right-wing radical, an election denier who was arrested today, and someone who did the worst imaginable thing you can do when you have a political disagreement, which is turn that to violence.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Following all of this closely is Gene Grant of New Mexico PBS.

  Gene, thanks for being here.

  And Solomon Pena, as I understand it, had a criminal history. And there were lawmakers in New Mexico who tried to keep him from running because of that. Tell me more about that.

• Gene Grant, New Mexico Public Television:

  Specifically, his opponent, Miguel Garcia, who held the seat at the time — he was the incumbent — he actually filed in court to keep Mr. Pena off the ballot because he had a felony record.

  And that felony record came, guys, from an amazing background. And when you think about it, he was part of a smash-and-grab ring, I mean, people who would take stolen vehicles, drive them through the front doors of big box retail electronic stores and steal things.

  He did almost seven years in prison with this. I mean, that's a fairly serious criminal background. The bid to keep him off the ballot, though, was unsuccessful. I will go back to that for a second. The judge stated in part that, if he's eligible to vote, he's eligible to run. He had done his five years of probation as well. So he was not kept off the ballot, but he lost by more than 2,000 votes.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Gene, what have the four Democrats targeted in this alleged conspiracy, what have they had to say about all this?

• Gene Grant:

  You know, not a lot so far.

  County Commissioner O'Malley probably had the most compelling story of all. You mentioned in the setup how Mr. Pena had come — had gone to the front doors of three of the victims out of the four here. And Ms. O'Malley had a very difficult conversation with him at her front door after he alleged that the election was stolen, he was not going to concede, and she was not afraid at the moment, but she was concerned enough that she did in fact tell law enforcement that he had showed up at her door.

  Now, when you think about that, obviously, she had 12 bullets hit her home. There's a lot of bullets that were done here. In fact, Mr. Pena was on one of the four times — four visits to shoot somebody, actually. He actually tried to use an AR. It jammed. He used a Glock instead.

  And they have got him cold at this point through records and now some phone issues from the folks that he had hired to do this as well. So, Democrats — Democrats are rightly concerned. I should add, we had our opening of our state legislature today, and Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, in fact, referenced the situation in her remarks at the state of the state today, standing right in front of Javier Martinez, the newly elected speaker of the House, who was one of the four folks who had his home shot up by this man.

  So it reaches Democrats quite deeply. But there — a lot of relief, I think, would be the biggest way to look at this right now. Folks were very concerned for a couple of weeks there.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Gene Grant of New Mexico PBS.

  Gene, thank you for sharing your reporting with us tonight. We appreciate it.

• Gene Grant:

  My pleasure.

• Geoff Bennett:

  And we're going to talk more now about the rise of politically motivated violence.

  For that, we're joined by Democratic Secretary of State in New Mexico. Maggie Toulouse Oliver.

  Thanks for being with us.

  And I want to ask you to expand on something you posted on Twitter earlier about this case. You said: "This is precisely how dangerous rhetoric and conspiracy theories promote violence toward elected officials."

  Tell me more about that, how you view the threat of violent political speech crossing over into the realm of violent political acts.

  Maggie Toulouse Oliver, New Mexico Secretary of State: Well, thank you so much for having me and for giving me the opportunity to elaborate a little bit on this truly unfortunate and difficult topic.

  As many folks are aware, I, as an election official, have been subjected to threats of political violence over the last couple of years since the deeply troubling big lie came about in 2020.

  And I think what we can see with the situation with Mr. Pena is sort of the follow-through, if you will, a through line to what can happen when you have folks who are, quite frankly, radicalized by these notions that elections have been rigged, of course, complete lies, but, furthermore, are being encouraged by the folks that they identify with in the rhetoric of political violence.

  So, not only are we talking on social media — and, by the way, Mr. Pena actually posted on social media earlier this year that I and some of my colleagues should be hung in the town square for social — for alleged treason. So, again, he was actively engaged in the rhetoric.

  And then we saw the result of, of course, post-election, him following through on these threats of political violence and actually taking shots and encouraging and masterminding a plot to take shots at people's actual homes. So this is deeply concerning. This rhetoric is deeply concerning. It's not just about threats. It's now about actions.

  And I think the most important thing is that we come together as a state here in New Mexico and as a nation to condemn these threats and acts of political violence.

• Geoff Bennett:

  How have the threats affected you personally? How has it affected the work that you do?

• Maggie Toulouse Oliver:

  Well, of course, in my personal life, I have had to completely change how I do things and become so much more situationally aware and create so many more protections around myself and my family.

  But, again, we're talking about not just me and not just a handful of people. In my state now, we have a number of elected officials who have been directly affected by not just threats, but actual acts of political violence.

  So, this is causing us all to have a time to come together and think about, what do we need to do, not only to protect ourselves as individuals and human beings with families in the future, but also how, again, do we address this deeply concerning violent political rhetoric to make it stop?

• Geoff Bennett:

  You have made combating election disinformation a key focus.

  In the couple of minutes we have left, how does that — what does that work look like for you? How do you go about doing that?

• Maggie Toulouse Oliver:

  So, I think the biggest challenge with it is that, for the last couple of years, especially, at first, especially immediately post-2020, it was incredibly reactive, right, sort of allegations-wise, misinformation being posted online or stated at press conferences, and having to come as an election official with skin in this game and with knowledge of the process to refute and push back on these lies to keep them from becoming unintentional truths.

  That's one of our biggest challenges. And now, over the last couple of years, many of my colleagues — and, by the way, I should really make sure that I say this is an issue on both sides of the aisle. Republicans and Democrats, election officials, in particular, have had to come together and be more much more proactive about talking about how our elections actually work and to talk about the reality of them.

  But the biggest challenge is to talk about our personal stories as people and how we have been personally affected. This rhetoric isn't just a throwaway comment on social media. It actually impacts us in our daily lives. And these threats mean something to us, our families and our children.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Maggie Toulouse Oliver is the secretary of state for the state of New Mexico.

  Thanks again for your time. We appreciate it.

• Maggie Toulouse Oliver:

  Thank you.