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U.S. officials are condemning Sunday’s violence at a march in Colorado, with the state’s governor calling it a “heinous and targeted act against the Jewish community” and some Republicans turning the blame on the Biden administration.
Eight people in Boulder were taken to hospitals after a man wielding a makeshift flamethrower and hurling an incendiary device attacked a crowd of people participating in a demonstration calling for the release of hostages in Gaza, police said.
Suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, was in the U.S. illegally after overstaying a tourist visa that expired in February 2023, a senior Department of Homeland Security official told HuffPost on Monday. The man was heard yelling “Free Palestine” while carrying out the afternoon violence, which injured four women and four men between the ages of 52 and 88, local authorities said.
Soliman was charged with a federal hate crime Monday, according to court documents.
ELI IMADALI via Getty Images
“Yesterday’s horrific attack in Boulder, Colorado, WILL NOT BE TOLERATED in the United States of America,” President Donald Trump said in a statement Monday afternoon that pointedly blamed his predecessor for the violence and repeated his campaign for mass deportations.
“This is yet another example of why we must keep our Borders SECURE, and deport Illegal, Anti-American Radicals from our Homeland. My heart goes out to the victims of this terrible tragedy, and the Great People of Boulder, Colorado!” he said.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who in the wake of the attack has directed local law enforcement agencies to bolster security efforts at Jewish places of worship, also called for the suspect to be prosecuted “to the fullest extent of the law.”
“Several individuals were brutally attacked while peacefully drawing attention to the plight of hostages who have been held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza for 604 days,” the Democrat said in a statement Sunday. “Hate is unacceptable in our Colorado for all, and I condemn this act of terror.”
Colorado’s Democratic Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper also slammed the violence, with Bennet asserting that “hate and violence of any kind will not be tolerated in Colorado.”
“In recent years, antisemitism has reached unprecedented levels in the U.S. — leading to attacks like this hate-fueled incident in Boulder and the recent murders in Washington, D.C.,” Bennet said in a statement that also cited the May 21 fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers. The suspect in that attack said, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,” upon his arrest, according to an FBI special agent’s affidavit in the case.
“It is particularly painful that this attack occurred as the Jewish community prepares to celebrate Shavuot. We reaffirm our unwavering commitment to combating antisemitism in all of its forms,” Bennet added.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) expressed similar sentiments, with all three calling it a shared responsibility to stand up against antisemitic acts.
“When antisemitism is allowed to fester, when it spreads unchecked, and when too many look the other way, history has shown us where it leads: to hatred, to violence, to terror,” Schumer said.
“Antisemitism has no place in our nation or anywhere throughout the world. It must be crushed,” Jeffries said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that the victims were targeted “simply because they were Jews” and that he expected the “cold blood perpetrator” would be prosecuted to “the fullest extent of the law.”
“The antisemitic attacks around the world are a direct result of blood libels against the Jewish state and people, and this must be stopped,” he said.
Several Trump administration officials have spoken out, with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sharing that her department is monitoring the incident and “praying for the victims and their families.”
“This violence must stop,” she posted on social media.
FBI Director Kash Patel also said his agency is “fully investigating” what his deputy director called a suspected “act of ideologically motivated violence.”
“We are investigating this incident as an act of terror, and targeted violence. All of the necessary assets will be dedicated to this investigation,” Deputy Director Dan Bongino said in a statement.
Trump’s senior adviser Stephen Miller meanwhile also blamed Joe Biden’s administration for the suspect’s ability to carry out the attack.
“Suicidal migration must be fully reversed,” he said. “Immigration security is national security.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) similarly blamed the Biden administration for what happened.
“This act of terror could have been prevented, but Biden made a mockery of our national security and America is paying the price for his failures,” he posted on social media.
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