All Of The Times People Tried To Kill President Obama

Barack Obama was one of the earliest candidates to ever receive Secret Service protection, being given a security detail in May 2007, long before the Democratic primaries had even started. Officials declined to detail any specific threats.

Maine resident Raymond H. Geisel was charged with making threatening statements against Obama during a bail-bonds training class in July 2008, in Miami. During the course, Geisel called Obama a racial obscenity and said, "If he gets elected, I'll assassinate him myself." Police were called, and searched Geisel’s hotel room, where they found ammunition, body armor, a combat-style hatchet, tear gas, a loaded 9-mm handgun, and four loaded magazines.

Geisel said he was only using the gun for his bail-bonds course, that he was a gun collector, and that he’d been joking about the threat. In December 2009, Geisel was convicted on weapons charges and served three years of supervised probation stemming from that conviction. As part of his plea agreement, the felony charges of threatening Obama were dropped.

North Carolina accountant Jerry Blanchard was indicted for threatening to kill candidate Obama during a July 15, 2008, breakfast at a Charlotte Waffle House. Two different customers said Blanchard told them, "I’m worth $50 million. Obama and his wife are never going to make it to the White House. He needs to be taken out... that man will never know what hit him... I just may do that, I’ve got the money and the clout." The Secret Service questioned Blanchard, who simultaneously denied making the threats and claimed he believed Obama was the anti-Christ.

The Secret Service was called again when a hotel employee overheard Blanchard in a restroom muttering, "I'll get a sniper rifle and take care of it myself. Somebody's got to do it ... We both know Obama is the anti-Christ.” Blanchard was arrested on felony charges, and sentenced to 366 days in prison.

Just days before the 2008 Democratic National Convention, three men traveled to Denver for the purpose of shooting Obama during his acceptance speech. The three white supremacists, cousins Tharin Gartrell and Shawn Adolf, and their friend Nathan Johnson, drove a truck full of weapons and meth to a hotel, and Gartrell was soon arrested when the truck was found. Johnson and Adolf were arrested shortly thereafter.

Authorities indicted the three on drugs and weapons charges, but dropped the federal threatening charges, owing to the ineptitude of the plan.

White supremacists Paul Schlesselman and Daniel Cowart allegedly planned not only to assassinate Obama, but to do it as the culmination of a murder spree where they’d kill 88 African Americans, 14 of whom would be beheaded (both numbers are significant digits in the white power movement).

Planning to fund their mayhem by robbing a gun stores, the two men kicked off their revolution by shooting at a church in Brownsville, TN. They were arrested in October 2008 after bragging to their appalled friends about what they’d done. Both men pleaded guilty to various federal firearms  charges, damage to church property, and threats to take the life of a presidential nominee. They were given lengthy prison terms.

Marine Lance Cpl. Kody Brittingham was stationed at Camp Lejuene, NC, when he was arrested in late 2008 on an armed robbery charge. As a result, he was separated from the service. But when Brittingham’s barracks were searched, police also turned up a journal containing white supremacist material, Wikipedia searches for "Inauguration Day," and a written plan to kill Obama - including a map of the Capitol.

Brittingham pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 100 months in prison for the armed robbery and the assassination plan.