Alert: Armed Man Arrested at Capitol, Planned to Kill ‘Nazis’ Hegseth, Mike Johnson, Scott Bessent

A man arrested at the United States Capitol Monday with a knife and Molotov cocktails admitted that he wanted to kill Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Ryan Michael “Reily” English traveled from his home in Massachusetts to Washington, D.C., on Sunday with various plans to target conservative officials and organizations, according to a United States Capitol Police affidavit.

The document said that English at first intended to kill Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who he called a “Nazi,” or possibly House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana.

The suspect also allegedly wanted to burn down the headquarters of the Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank.

The affidavit added that English saw Reddit posts on his way to the nation’s capital that discussed the confirmation hearings for Bessent, allegedly prompting him to switch his target.

English intended to use “small bottles of vodka to start fires and later to wrap them in rags soaked in alcohol, light them and throw them at Bessent’s feet,” according to the affidavit.

He wanted to then stab Bessent with a knife he had brought from Massachusetts.

English also planned to kill at least three police officers to gain access to Bessent.

But English approached a Capitol Police officer Monday afternoon and said he wanted to turn himself in, admitting that he was in possession of knives and two “Molotov cocktails.”

Bessent was confirmed to lead the Treasury Department roughly three hours later.

English was meanwhile charged with unlawful receipt, possession, or transfer of a firearm, and carrying a firearm, explosive, or incendiary device on Capitol grounds, according to a report from CNBC.

Officers found a receipt in English’s back pocket as they searched his person, per the affidavit.

The receipt had a note scrawled on the back addressed to his sister.

“Judith dear god I am so sorry. You must understand I can feel myself dying slowly b/c of my heart. This is terrible but I cant do nothing while nazis kill my sisters. I love you,” he wrote.

“This is awful. Im so sorry. I love u. Please stay alive and heal. you can. you are strong enough,” English continued. “F*** them for pushing us so far. you dont deserve this. Im so sorry for lying and plotting and lying.”

While this incident is surely still being investigated, there are already hints that English had been immersed in politicized rhetoric before this arrest.

The media has, of course, been accusing President Donald Trump and his senior officials of racism, bigotry, and even Nazism for nearly a decade.

Look no further than Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a lawmaker from English’s home state, accusing Hegseth of sympathizing with “right-wing extremism” because of his tattoos with historic Christian symbolism.

Even more recently, the media has been ranting for over a week about Elon Musk purportedly making a Nazi salute at a Trump rally on inauguration day, even though he was clearly gesturing from his heart out to the audience.

As the nation learned after the assassination attempts against Trump, there is a tangible cost to needlessly heated political rhetoric directed from the establishment media toward Republicans.

Seeing that such media sources have no intention of dialing back their rhetoric, we can only expect the violence their false claims stir up to continue undeterred.

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