SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Today federal law enforcement officials arraigned a 31-year-old man on charges that he attempted to assassinate President Trump. The incident took place at the Washington Hilton Hotel on Saturday night, where top administration officials were gathered with journalists for the White House Correspondents' Dinner. NPR domestic extremism correspondent Odette Yousef has more. Hi, Odette.
ODETTE YOUSEF, BYLINE: Hey, Scott.
DETROW: So what are we finding? And what are you finding as you've looked into the suspect?
YOUSEF: So the defendant was an educator. He worked with high school kids in Torrance, California. And, you know, Scott, there have been news reports quoting members of his family who say that he was a radical leftist. NPR has not independently confirmed these reports. But these claims were also circulating on social media platforms. And Jared Holt says there's some dissonance there. He's with Open Measures, which is a company that tracks online threats and narratives.
JARED HOLT: You know, you've seen some of the typical, well, it's the radical left and their rhetoric. That's - they need to cool it down. But then you look at the social media profiles that have been attributed to the suspect, and they're really not that radical.
YOUSEF: You know, also, Scott, you know, President Trump also said on Saturday that some of the writings that the defendant supposedly sent to family members just before the incident revealed that he was, quote, "anti-Christian." You know, I read these writings and I spoke with others who had, and there's nothing in it that appears anti-Christian. I think, you know, more surprising to me is that there's also nothing we found that seems overtly conspiracist.
DETROW: I mean, all of that is kind of alarming in its own way. Tell me more about that.
YOUSEF: Yeah. I mean, many acts of political violence that we've seen in this country tie to false narratives, where the conspiracies sometimes push people to act violently by creating a sense of urgency around some supposed crisis. This wasn't that. You know, yes, he was using terms like rapist or pedophile in reference to the president. But honestly, his content falls into a kind of mainstream left now, Scott. You know, it didn't show any sign that he might be swimming in radical leftist waters or fixated on violence as a solution to his grievances.
DETROW: How does this latest incident fit with the wider climate we are seeing of political violence in the U.S.?
YOUSEF: Well, over the last decade, Scott, political violence has been increasing, and there's this question now of how much of it is attributed to the left. The data show that political violence from the left has increased in the last year, but that is from a very low baseline over the last 10 years. And in the last decade, political violence has overwhelmingly been associated with the far right. But look, you know, often perpetrators of political violence actually do not have a coherent political agenda or world view. You know, what's more usual, Scott, is that they were in the middle of some kind of personal crisis or difficulty.
DETROW: So is there any evidence at this point, at least, of that here?
YOUSEF: We just don't know yet. You know, I think what's most troubling about this one, from the people I've interviewed, is just this person's admittedly thin online presence and writings paint a picture of a pretty normal guy with views that are quite common in America. You know, it doesn't appear that there was any so-called radicalization. And so I think, you know, through the court case, many will be looking for indications of what could have tipped him into an alleged, you know, plan for violence.
DETROW: That is NPR's Odette Yousef. Thanks so much.
YOUSEF: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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