Robert Stacy McCain warned us about jumping to conclusions before all of the facts were in about Cody Balmer, the man charged with setting fire to the Pennsylvania Governor’s Mansion.

As soon as Pennsylvania State Police announced that Cody Balmer had been charged with setting the fire at the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion in Harrisburg, someone found Balmer’s Facebook page and a deep dive found little evidence to point to a motive. Like most other people — including Gov. Josh Shapiro himself — I immediately assumed the motive must be antisemitism. Like, you attack the residence of the Jewish governor on the first night of Passover, what else could it be?

So when I plunged into Balmer’s Facebook page, I expected to find evidence that the suspect was either (a) a neo-Nazi Jew-hater or (b) a “progressive” pro-Palestinian Jew-hater. But there was no evidence of either inclination. In fact, there was very little hint of political inclinations at all. The guy was a welder and mechanic, with a black wife and four mixed-race kids, which obviously seemed to rule out any neo-Nazi tendencies, but there weren’t any “free Palestine” messages, either, He had a couple of sarcastic posts indicating he wasn’t a big fan of Joe Biden, but there weren’t any MAGA pro-Trump messages, either. Thomas Stevenson of The Post Millennial dug even deeper than I did and discovered that Balmer described himself as a “registered socialist,” so it’s a fair surmise he was a Bernie Bro back in the day, which might explain his disdain of Biden as an “establishment” Democrat.

However, there were also a couple of indications that Balmer’s life had taken a downward turn in recent years. In 2023, he was charged with three counts of assault, and more recently his Harrisburg home — which reportedly had once belonged to his grandmother — had been lost in foreclosure and sold at auction at the county courthouse. Then on Monday afternoon, the anchor on CNN (I watch CNN, so you don’t have to) mentioned that police said “mental health issues” might be a factor. And then there was a court hearing, and oh, boy!

There’s more at Mr McCain’s original

It seems that Mr Balmer is, to use the professional psychiatric term, just plain nuts. Having lived in the Keystone State for fifteen years, I could see, especially on income tax day, how that would drive you crazy. The Commonwealth’s income tax rate is a relatively low 3.07%, but Pennsylvania makes up for that by nickel-and-diming its people to death with various taxes and fees and licenses on everything other than breathing. If the state government could figure out a way to tax people on breathing, they would.

However, while Mr Balmer is certifiably coocoo for Cocoa Puffs, even crazy people can be set off by certain things, and it seems that Mr Balmer targeted Governor Shapiro and his family because they’re Jewish:

Pa. Gov. Shapiro was targeted for ‘what he wants to do to Palestinian people’: warrant

By Juliette Rihl | jrihl@pennlive.com | Updated: Wednesday, April 16, 2025 | 11:15 AM EDT |Published: Tuesday, April 15, 2025 | 8:00 PM EDT

The suspect in the arson attack at the Governor’s Residence targeted Josh Shapiro due to his perceived stance on Palestine, according to a search warrant obtained by PennLive.

The suspect, Cody Balmer, called 911 following the attack early Sunday, identified himself by name and told operators Shapiro needs to know he “…will not take part in his plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people,” the search warrant written by police said.

Balmer continued, saying he needed to “stop having my friends killed” and that “…our people have been put through too much by that monster,” according to the warrant, which says Balmer’s intonation and cadence sounded like he was possibly reading from a script.

Further down:

Police obtained several search warrants, including for Balmer’s parents’ home, where he was living, and a storage unit as well as his electronic devices.

In the warrant for his devices signed Tuesday, Corporal Benjamin Forsythe of the Pennsylvania State Police says Balmer targeted Shapiro “based upon perceived injustices to the people of Palestine,” as well as Shapiro’s Jewish faith, though the warrant does not elaborate on why Shapiro’s faith is believed to have been a motive.

The New York Post and Le*gal In*sur*rec*tion also told us about this, and even The Philadelphia Inquirer, though probably reluctantly, had a story on it.

With his past criminal background and his obvious mental issues, no one can say that there was any real, logical reason behind Mr Balmer’s actions, but it is true that bad causes attract bad people. Is it also the case that bad causes attract crazy people?