Hi, everyone. It's 4 o'clock in New York. You don't need to read the paper or watch the news

every day to understand that there's a sickness in our country right now, brought on by a highly

combustible blend of domestic extremism, election denialism, and conspiratorial thinking.

Police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, yesterday made an arrest in a previously mysterious string of

shootings, targeting the homes of state and local democratic leaders. That man you're looking at in

handcuffs is the one now accused of being to quote police, the mastermind behind those attacks,

distressing enough until you realize exactly who he is. That man's name is Solomon Pena, and he

is a failed candidate for New Mexico's state house. To be more specific, he's a failed Republican

candidate described as a gushing supporter of Donald Trump by local media and an election

denier by police, a person who might have been motivated by anger over nonexistent fraud

in his landslide in November loss. Pena now stands accused of conspiring with and paying

four men to carry out four shootings at Albuquerque area homes of two Bernaleo County commissioners

and two state legislators. Among his alleged targets, homes belonging to officials with whom

Pena met after his election loss in his attempts to overturn the results. Quite thankfully, no one

was hurt, but that does little to ease the shock. One of the bullets flew through a 10-year-old girl's

bedroom. Here's Albuquerque's mayor after the arrest. This situation today, I think obviously

points out that these shootings were orchestrated. They were dangerous attacks, not only to these

individuals, which is personally the most terrifying for them, but fundamentally also to democracy.

That is why this is so terrible. This type of radicalism is a threat to our nation and has made

its way to our doorstep right here in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Fundamentally, at the end of the day,

this was about a right-wing radical, an election denier who was arrested today. In someone who

did the worst imaginable thing you can do when you have a political disagreement, which is turn

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