Former Republican candidate detained in shootings that targeted the houses of Democratic lawmakers

 The guy who Albuquerque police believe to be the "mastermind" behind a recent spate of shootings that targeted the houses of Democratic politicians was detained on Monday.

The suspect, Republican Solomon Pena, ran unsuccessfully for office in November. He has often claimed that the election was rigged and he appears to have been present at the violence in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021.

APD's SWAT team surrounded a condominium building close to the ABQ BioPark Zoo at around 3 p.m. to carry out a search warrant. Drones soared overhead as they made announcements for Pena, who they claimed might be carrying a gun, to surrender.

Police Chief Harold Medina reported Monday night that within an hour, officers had apprehended Pena, who is accused of hiring four individuals to fire shots at the residences of two county commissioners and two state lawmakers. Additionally, according to the investigators, Pena was present for at least one of the shootings.

Jose Trujillo, one of the four men Pena is accused of recruiting, is facing federal charges related to drug trafficking and firearms, although the other suspects' names were withheld at first.

Pena, who was a candidate for the House District 14 seat but lost, asserted on social media that he ought to have won. In November, he went unannouncedly to the houses of three of the targeted officials and complained that the election was invalid.

Mayor Tim Keller stated during a news conference that "APD basically found what we had all feared and what we had assumed — that these shootings were indeed politically motivated." They were dangerous assaults on democracy in general as much as on these particular people.

Republican House Leader Ryan Lane and Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham both released comments praising law enforcement and denouncing violence.

According to Lujan Grisham, "violence against any elected person or their family has no place in our society or our democracy, and I have faith that the legal system will hold those guilty for such crimes fully and fairly accountable."

Lane mentioned Pena's criminal record, which was a contentious topic during the campaign, and expressed the gratitude of the New Mexico House Republicans that no one was hurt in the shootings.

This is another another instance of a convicted criminal obtaining a firearm illegally that they are not allowed to own or carry and utilising it to hurt the public, according to Lane.

Democrat targets

Early in January, APD reported that it was looking into a number of shootings that had targeted the houses of Democratic elected figures in the city.

They claimed that on December 4, eight bullets struck the home of Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa in Southeast Albuquerque, and a week later, on December 11, more than 12 rounds struck the home of County Commissioner Debbie O'Malley in North Valley.

On January 3, three bullets entered the bedroom of state representative Linda Lopez's 10-year-old daughter as she slept after shots rang out at her home in Southwest Albuquerque.

State Representative Javier Martnez, who is running for speaker of the House and represents District 11 in Southwest Albuquerque, noticed that his home had also been shot at after hearing about the inquiry. On December 8, he heard gunfire outside his house, and he believes that's when the shooting took place.

Gunshots were also heard near Ral Torrez's campaign office as he ran for state attorney general as well as the office of state senator Antonio "Moe" Maestas. However, a department spokesman stated on Monday that there is currently no evidence connecting Pena and his alleged accomplices to those shootings.

Democrats inside and outside of the West Wing are frustrated by the White House's response to the Biden documents.

 The way the White House has informed the public about the discovery of documents with classified markings at President Biden's former office and his home in Delaware has angered West Wing staffers, officials from across the Biden administration, and Democratic Party officials more broadly, according to CBS News.

Those who spoke with CBS News on the condition of anonymity in order to speak openly about the matter and preserve their professional relationships feel that the president's cherished promises of transparency and competent management of the government were undermined by the decision not to announce the discovery of the documents sooner.

They also worry that the White House's ability to confirm even the most basic details will be greatly constrained now that a special counsel probe is under way.

A Friday statement from a Democrat close to the White House claimed, "They're attempting to put lipstick on a pig." The issue is that they were only given one stick of lipstick and 50 pigs this week.

According to a Northeastern Democratic Party official who is close to the president and his top staff, "There isn't really a comparison to be made between the Biden and Trump document situations. But why on earth didn't they publish the news earlier, perhaps before the holidays? And why didn't they release the entire narrative at once rather than piecemeal with each new document found? Simply said, it was not handled at all well."

Some Democrats in the House are speaking out more about their worries about the situation.

"That wasn't supposed to happen. It requires investigation, which is already being done, "Democratic representative from California Zoe Lofgren stated on MSNBC on Saturday. "As a result, we will have to wait to learn all the specifics, but I have no doubt that we will. Since I haven't spoken to him, I can only assume he is angry about it, but who could be?"

In a broader sense, Rep. Matt Cartwright, a centrist Democrat from Scranton, Pennsylvania, where the president is from, said on Fox News that the federal government needs to "review how departing presidents and vice presidents are going about organising the archiving of their documents, both classified and unclassified, because this can't go on."

He continued, "You're talking about people who are all lining up, they're rewriting their resumes, they're sending them out for new jobs, they're not thinking about, you know, business at hand, it seems to me. Whether it's President Trump leaving office or Vice President Biden leaving office.

The president's personal lawyer, Bob Bauer, defended the public announcement of the discovery of the materials in a statement released on Saturday "attempted to strike a balance between the necessity of public transparency where appropriate and the standards and restrictions required to maintain the integrity of the investigation. The public publication of information pertaining to the inquiry while it is continuing must be avoided due to these factors."

The White House Counsel's office, which is in charge of defending the president in official affairs, announced in a separate statement that it will direct any future press queries about the specifics of the ongoing investigation and discovery of the papers to the Justice Department.

Many Democrats are especially sensitive to media reports that contrast the materials found at Mr. Biden's former workplace and Delaware estate with the National Archives' protracted efforts to obtain hundreds of classified documents from former President Donald Trump over the course of several months.

According to Kyle Herrig, executive director of the Congressional Integrity Project, "comparing Biden's collaboration to Trump's obstruction is like comparing apples with arsenic."

The Democrat-aligned organisation is intended to act as a neutral force in the upcoming onslaught of House Republican oversight investigations, supporting the president and congressional Democrats.

She urged them to say that the president "is cooperating fully" while Trump "repeatedly obstructed efforts to retrieve sensitive documents to the point the Department of Justice had to obtain and execute a search warrant." Herrig sent updated suggested talking points to prominent party activists and frequent television guests on Friday.

The Biden and Trump cases were described by Herrig as, "Interaction vs. Blockade. Stolen vs. misplaced. Subpoena versus voluntary. Instant vs Search Warrant"

Given Mr. Biden's prior criticism of Trump's handling of secret information, another Democrat who advised Mr. Biden's 2020 campaign and has worked in campaign politics in the South and West for decades called the current predicament "hypocritical."

This Democrat, however, claimed that the White House was "sharp" in its reaction to recent positive economic data showing a further decline in inflation and growing Republican calls for cutting federal entitlement programmes in exchange for raising the country's debt ceiling, which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned must be done by early June.

This Democrat stated that the president's political standing should improve if he remains committed to boosting the economy. "Do the documents in Trump's home or Biden's garage truly interest the general populace in America? Not in my opinion. They appear to be more concerned with egg carton costs, in my opinion."