Politics can be dangerous. And some have crosshairs on their heads.
But now a deranged political assassin learned his fate.
The unhinged left has spent years pretending that political violence is exclusively a right-wing problem, but the case of Benjamin Keebler proves once again that hatred for outspoken conservatives can turn deadly serious in a hurry. Keebler, an independent voter from Kentucky, was sentenced Friday to two and a half years behind bars after admitting he cyberstalked and threatened Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, one of the most fiercely independent-minded lawmakers in Congress.
This wasn’t some idle internet troll blowing off steam. Keebler left a trail of chilling voicemails and phone calls to numbers tied to Massie’s office, at one point telling a staffer he planned to show up with bear mace. In one particularly disturbing February 2023 recording, Keebler snarled, “Live by the gun. Die by the gun, boy.” That’s not political disagreement. That’s a threat against a sitting member of Congress, plain and simple.
It got worse from there. In February 2025, Keebler called Massie’s office asking about the congressman’s next town hall so he could, in his own chilling words, “shoot [Massie] in the head.” He didn’t stop with Massie either — Keebler also allegedly threatened a U.S. senator with what he called a “hammer visit,” though that lawmaker’s name was withheld from court records.
Massie himself broke the news on X, writing simply, “man who threatened to shoot me sentenced to prison…” No theatrics, no self-pity — just a Kentucky congressman going about his business while a man who wanted him dead finally faced consequences.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Boone didn’t mince words in court, calling Keebler’s threats “inherently corrosive to a democratic society.” That’s putting it mildly. When Americans can no longer serve in elected office without fearing for their lives, the entire experiment in self-government is under assault.
Keebler’s defense attorney tried the now-familiar playbook of blaming untreated mental illness, arguing his client wouldn’t have made these threats if he’d been properly diagnosed with bipolar disorder. A court-ordered evaluation claimed Keebler’s “perception of the current aggressive and divisive political climate provided him with a reality-based ‘target’ to project his agitated depression and mania onto.” Convenient framing, but it doesn’t erase the fact that he chose Thomas Massie as that target — not some random figure, but a Republican congressman known for standing up to the establishment in both parties.
Keebler did offer something resembling contrition at sentencing, admitting his mental health struggles got the better of him and calling his actions a “complete embarrassment.” He told the judge, “I recognize that by my own hand I have brought consequences upon myself.” At least he owned it, which is more than can be said for plenty of activists on the left who cheer this kind of behavior from the sidelines.
U.S. District Court Judge David Bunning wasn’t buying excuses either, declaring that Keebler’s threats “completely crossed the line.” As part of the sentence, Keebler is barred from contacting Massie or the unnamed senator and must undergo mandatory mental health treatment while under government supervision.
This case doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s part of a disturbing pattern of political violence that has escalated dramatically in recent years, much of it aimed squarely at conservatives. President Trump has survived three separate assassination attempts. Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk was gunned down at a Utah Valley University event in September 2025, murdered simply for espousing conservative ideas on a college campus.
The violence hasn’t been limited to the right, of course. Paul Pelosi, husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was attacked in his San Francisco home back in October 2022 by an intruder wielding a hammer. And Minnesota’s House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were murdered in their own home in June 2025 by a gunman posing as a police officer.
But let’s be honest about the imbalance here. For years, the corporate media and Democratic Party leadership downplayed and even excused threats against conservative figures while treating every perceived slight against their own side as an existential crisis. Thomas Massie has been a lightning rod precisely because he refuses to play by the swamp’s rules — he votes his conscience, challenges leadership in both parties, and doesn’t back down from a fight. That independence apparently made him a target in the eyes of a man disturbed enough to fantasize about murdering him.
Keebler’s sentencing sends a message that threatening a member of Congress carries real consequences, and that’s a good thing. But it should also serve as a wake-up call about the rhetoric coursing through our political discourse. When politicians and pundits spend years describing their opponents as existential threats to democracy, don’t be shocked when unstable individuals take that language literally.
Massie has weathered this ordeal with characteristic stoicism, refusing to let it distract him from his work representing Kentucky’s Fourth District. He continues pushing for government transparency, fiscal responsibility, and constitutional protections against an ever-expanding surveillance state — the same principles that have made him both beloved by grassroots conservatives and, apparently, hated enough by at least one man to threaten his life.
For everyday Americans watching from the outside, the takeaway is simple: political violence against conservatives is real, it’s escalating, and it deserves the same seriousness and prosecutorial vigor as any other threat to our democratic institutions. Benjamin Keebler is behind bars now. The climate of hatred that produced him hasn’t gone anywhere.
