Columbia News

Senator Eric Schmitt has publicly questioned the validity of widely cited reports on political violence in a series of tweets posted on October 11, 2025. Schmitt, a U.S. Senator from Missouri, criticized current research and called for new empirical studies by the Department of Justice.

In one tweet, Schmitt stated: "Over and over again, the same few reports are used to claim that right-wing violence outweighs left-wing violence—even leftist AND Islamist violence combined. Sounds crazy, right? Because it is. But even now, left-wing pundits, politicians and activists continue to cite them." (October 11, 2025)

He further explained his actions in another post: "I just sent a letter to the Department of Justice urging them to conduct a serious, empirical study on the crisis of left-wing political violence. Currently, no study of this sort exists. The 'data' we do have on political violence is laughably flawed, partisan junk science." (October 11, 2025)

Schmitt also expressed concerns about bias in existing analyses: "These reports aren’t neutral law enforcement analyses. They’re partisan press releases that begin at the conclusion they want, and reason backwards. They define 'right-wing' so broadly that it covers everything from Islamist radicals to mentally ill, non-ideological loners." (October 11, 2025)

Disputes over how political violence is defined and reported have been ongoing in recent years. Several advocacy organizations and research groups have published studies claiming higher rates of right-wing political violence compared to other forms; these findings have been debated by lawmakers and experts concerned with methodology and definitions.

Senator Schmitt's request for a Department of Justice study comes amid broader national discussions about extremism and politically motivated crime data collection practices.