FBI Killing Man Who Threatened Biden Angers Conservatives

Multiple conservative figures have denounced the killing of Craig Deleeuw Robertson, a 75-year-old Utah man who was fatally shot by FBI agents on Wednesday.

Agents were executing a search warrant at Robertson's residence when the shooting occurred. Robertson had made several social media posts appearing to threaten President Joe Biden and showed support for former President Donald Trump.

The Associated Press reported that two law enforcement sources said Robertson was armed at the time of the shooting, but the FBI provided no further information as the incident is under review.

According to records obtained by Newsweek, Robertson was a registered Republican, and his death has been addressed by several well-known conservatives on social media.

"I'm seeing the government do things I've never seen in my 40+ years of broadcasting," political commentator/radio host Glenn Beck wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "People have mailed credible threats to presidents for years. They've (rightly) been investigated for it, but I've never seen the FBI gun anybody down for it. Ever. This is not normal."

"Pre-dawn raid on an elderly man because he was spitting his dumb mouth on Facebook. Biden's FBI," the Citizen Free Press, a right-wing media outlet, wrote on X.

In a separate post, the Citizen Free Press shared a video of Madonna railing against Trump at a Women's March in 2017. The clip shows the pop star saying she has "thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House."

The post added the FBI "did nothing" about Madonna's statement.

"The FBI hunted and killed a 75-year-old Trump supporter over a Facebook post, but didn't arrest Ray Epps for telling people to go into the Capitol. Really makes you think," conservative author/entrepreneur Andrew Pollack wrote on X, referencing a January 6 protester who's accused by some members of the right-wing media of being a government plant who helped escalate the 2021 Capitol riot.

In response to Pollack's post, political scientist Dr. Carol Swain said: "The #FBI also did not properly address death threats against conservative Supreme Court Justices. Is anyone surprised that there were no investigations of #Scalia's death and fast burial amidst suspicious circumstances? It occurred at a top Democrat donor's ranch in the middle of nowhere."

In a statement sent to Newsweek, the FBI said it "takes all shooting incidents involving our agents or task force members seriously. In accordance with FBI policy, the shooting incident is under review by the FBI's Inspection Division. As this is an ongoing matter, we have no further details to provide."

According to a criminal complaint obtained by Newsweek, Robertson posted on Monday on social media that he was planning to clean "the dust off" a sniper rifle ahead of Biden's scheduled trip to Utah on Wednesday.

"I therefore believe this is knowing and willful true threat to kill or cause injury to President Biden using an M24 sniper rifle while being concealed by a ghillie suit during President Biden's visit to Utah," an FBI agent involved in the investigation wrote in the criminal complaint relating to Robertson's Monday post.