Richard Arnold: US Correspondent says 'hitlist' found inside car of assassination suspect

US police have found a 'hit list' of names after they confronted the man who shot and killed Democrat Melissa Hortman and her husband in the state of Minnesota.

US correspondent Richard Arnold told Mike Hosking that the 57-year-old suspect got away - but police were able to search his vehicle.

He says they found a papers listing around 70 names of other targets - as well as anti-abortion material. 

The gunman had also shot another Democratic senator and his wife in their home - they both survived.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
State tide rich and ID very good morning, good one.
He may all right, So what does the US do
about this? If anything Iran Israel we speak of, of course, well,
Trump is injecting himself into talk about all of this
as the Israel Iran conflict deepens, both sides launching daylight
attacks today. In a telephone interview with American ABC a
sure time ago, Trump saying the US is not involved

(00:20):
in Israel's military strikes, but then he added quote, it
is possible we could get involved. So sit with that
for a moment. Iran already is asserting that the US
is playing a direct part, even as Michael Rubio, the
Secretary of State here says it is not. At the
same time, Trump was quoted describing the initial Israeli strike
as excellent, even amid reports of the US vetoed in

(00:41):
Israeli plan to assassinate Iran. Supremely dent Laatola al Haamani.
On social media, Trump also added this quote, if we
are attacked in any way, shape or formed by Iran,
the full strength and weight of the US armed forces
will come down on you at levels never seen before.
Trump also is raising his latest call with Russia's Putin,

(01:02):
who offered himself as a beast baker. Beast baker wow,
no comment really. A Washington human rights group tallies at
least four hundred and six Iranians killed and six hundred
and fifty four wounded. Israel has struck an aerial refueling
plane in eastern around today. That's its longest range attacks
so far, and says fourteen nuclear officials have been killed

(01:23):
in their attacks. Israel's ambassador here, Michael Lighter, says his
country's iron dome, its defenses are not catching everything.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
There's about ten to fifteen percent of these ballistic missiles
that get through. We sustained significant attacks last night. We
have over ten fatalities and one hundreds wounded.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah, up to fifteen percent of Iranian strikes heading through.
That is a lot, isn't it. He claims that Israel
can set back Run's nuclear program by many years, But
one lingering question always is four doh, the underground site
that Iran has built in recent times, a site that
can only be destroyed by American bunker busting bombs if

(02:03):
the US approves that. So what next? Israel is foreshadowing
weeks of attacks, showing yet again starting the wars straightforward
ending one way more difficult.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Indeed, where are we at in Minnesota?

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Well, not to far. The search is widened for this
individual from Minnesota, fifty seven year old Vance Belton, who
is wanted as the alleged to sassion of a state
politician and her husband shot dead in their own home.
You know, Mike, they used to talk about Minnesota nice.
That was a cliche the courtesy of Minnesotan's where the
police used to put their home addresses on their web pages.

(02:37):
Don't think they want to do that anymore.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
Now.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Former Speaker Melissa Hortman has been shot dead along with
her husband Mark, and at another home, a state senator
and his wife also have been shot multiple times. Are
in critical condition, just hanging in, says a friend of
their Democratic Senator, Amy Klobusha, who was specially close to
Melissa Hortman, whom she knew as a mum of young
children before she went into politics.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
I got to know her then, and I saw how
she door knocked and knew practically every person in her district.
She was able to juggle being a Sunday school teacher,
being a Girls Scout leader, training service dogs for veterans.
They were able to juggle it all, and maybe that's
what helped her be this incredible legislator who worked her

(03:21):
way up to Speaker of the House, who helped lead
the efforts to pass this incredible work on paid family leave,
where Minnesota is on the map in such a big
way to help people, or free school lunch.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah, police confront of the suspect at the home of
the other victims, but he got away, and now they say,
don't approach him if he's seen. He lift in his
camp papers listing some seventy other potential targets along with
anti abortion materials. All this overshadow of the big Trump
Parade Day, which was well it rained on the Trump
military parade. Literally, the crowd was a tiny, low energy,

(03:59):
as Trump my saying, the front of the Lincoln Monument
looked like a local football game, not much more than
that many seats along the seventy four million dollar parade
route where empty Trump looked pretty unhappy. Meantime, some five
million people are estimated to have taken part in anti
Trump protests in twenty one hundred cities across the land,
including big crowds in Idaho and Texas. Red States, one

(04:21):
hundred thousand in Philadelphia, seventy five thousand in Chicago and
in LA.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
And unlike those sixty six hundred troops in Washington, DC.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
No one was ordered to be here, no one was
paid to be here. Yeah, that's been the Trump claim,
and Trump himself seems to be backing down from ice
agents supporting undocumented farm workers and restaurant workers. Those businesses
are telling Trump now they actually need those folks, many
of whom have worked in the kitchens and fields for decades.

(04:57):
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