FALSE: MSNBC “Expert” claimed most political violence comes from the left.

Chris O’Leary, Senior VP, Global Operations at The Soufan Group, appeared on Katy Tur Reports on MSNBC and claimed most political violence in America has been from the left. IT IS A LIE!

MSNBC “Expert” claims political violence mostly from the left

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Chris O’Leary, Senior VP, Global Operations at The Soufan Group, told Katt Tur that most political violence in America is from the left. It is a verifiable lie. After checking ChatGPT, the results are precise.

Throughout American history, the overwhelming majority of political violence has come from the political right, although there have been notable episodes of left-wing violence as well. Understanding this requires examining different eras and their dominant political forces.

Right-Wing Political Violence: A Persistent Pattern

1. Slavery and Reconstruction
   In the 19th century, right-wing violence was foundational to the U.S. political landscape.
   • Before the Civil War, pro-slavery forces regularly used violence to suppress abolitionist speech and uprisings, from “Bleeding Kansas” to the beating of Senator Charles Sumner on the Senate floor.
   • After the war, the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups launched campaigns of terror during Reconstruction to reestablish white rule and disenfranchise Black voters. This was political terrorism explicitly aimed at overturning the democratic gains of freed people.
   • These groups were linked to the Democratic Party of that era, which was the party of the Southern planter elite.
2. Labor Movement Suppression
   In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, industrial capitalists and conservative governments used state and private violence to crush labor organizing.
   • Events like the Haymarket Massacre (1886), Ludlow Massacre (1914), and countless strikes involved police, the National Guard, and private strikebreakers attacking workers fighting for fair wages and conditions.
   • This violence was politically aligned with the right-leaning corporate interests of the Gilded Age.
3. Civil Rights Era
   During the 1950s and 1960s, segregationists — overwhelmingly conservative and right-wing — perpetrated widespread violence against the civil rights movement.
   • The bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham that killed four Black girls, the murders of Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King Jr., and the beatings of Freedom Riders were all acts of white supremacist, right-wing terror.
   • State governments in the South often colluded with these actors, reflecting institutional right-wing resistance to equality.
4. Modern Right-Wing Extremism
   Since the 1990s, most domestic terror incidents have come from the far right.
   • The Oklahoma City bombing (1995) by Timothy McVeigh targeted the federal government and killed 168 people.
   • White supremacist mass shootings such as Charleston (2015), El Paso (2019), and Buffalo (2022) fit into this pattern.
   • The January 6th insurrection (2021) was an explicit right-wing attempt to overturn a democratic election.
   Data from the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Anti-Defamation League shows that over 75% of political killings in the U.S. since 2008 have been perpetrated by right-wing extremists.

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Left-Wing Political Violence: Episodic and Declining

While the left has historically engaged in political violence, it has been far less frequent and more isolated:

1. Anarchist Violence (Late 19th / Early 20th Century)
   • Anarchists and radical labor groups like the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) were associated with bombings and assassinations, such as the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901.
   • However, these were sporadic and quickly suppressed by state power.
2. Weather Underground and Radical Groups (1960s-70s)
   • During the Vietnam War era, groups like the Weather Underground engaged in bombings targeting government buildings.
   • The Symbionese Liberation Army, known for kidnapping Patty Hearst, also committed violent acts.
   • These movements were small, fringe, and short-lived, and their violence paled compared to state violence against anti-war and civil rights activists.
3. Present Day
   • Left-wing violence is extremely rare today. FBI data shows that incidents attributed to “Antifa” or other far-left groups are minimal compared to right-wing violence.
   • Most leftist movements, such as Black Lives Matter, overwhelmingly emphasize nonviolent protest, despite right-wing media portrayals to the contrary.

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Why the Right Dominates Political Violence

• Preservation of Power: The right historically represents entrenched elites — slaveholders, industrialists, segregationists, and today’s corporate and nationalist movements. These groups have used violence to maintain hierarchies.
• State Support: Right-wing violence often aligns with state power. Police, militias, and the military have historically sided with conservative interests, amplifying their capacity for violence.
• Narrative Control: The Media has often downplayed right-wing violence while magnifying left-wing incidents, creating a false balance.

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While both sides have engaged in political violence, the historical record shows that the right has been the dominant perpetrator, from the Ku Klux Klan to January 6th. The left’s violent episodes, though real, have been relatively rare, fragmented, and lacking institutional support. Today, right-wing extremism remains the greatest domestic terror threat, as acknowledged by U.S. intelligence agencies, making it a continuation of a centuries-long pattern rather than an anomaly.