On Saturday, Bellarmine University English professor John James posted on social media following the shooting at a campaign rally for former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania.
“If you’re gonna shoot, man, don’t miss,” James said on his account.
The prolific Libs of TikTok account on X, formerly Twitter, later posted the professor’s comments on its page. Some responses demanded James be fired.
In an emailed statement, James said he did not intend to wish harm to Trump.
“I will say here, for the record, that I do not condone violence,” he said. “My point with this post was that, though it is a bad idea to assassinate a person, it is perhaps an even worse idea to fail in assassinating a person, because a failed assassination lends that figure power — it heroizes them.”
By Monday, Bellarmine placed James on unpaid leave. According to a letter written by Bellarmine officials to James obtained by LPM News, the professor was placed on leave until Aug. 20. James said university officials advised him not to speak publicly about his employment status while he was suspended.
That evening, there was a bomb threat on campus. According to Bellarmine spokesperson Jason Cissell, the threat was related to James’ suspension.
“The bomb threat was an unfortunate hoax related to the online furor over that instructor’s comments. It was quickly determined to be a false alarm,” Cissell said in an emailed statement.
On Tuesday, Bellarmine officials posted on X that James was no longer a university employee. He said he received notice by email that evening. These actions come amid an effort by Libs of TikTok to find users posting derogatory comments about the assassination attempt.
Who is Libs of TikTok?
The search to find those users is fueled by the social media account Libs of Tiktok. It’s best known for its support of right-wing politics.
Founder Chaya Raichik named her then-personal account Libs of TikTok in 2021, according to the Washington Post. At the time, the account had more than 600,000 followers. Raichik used the page to attack the LGBTQ+ community and garner support for Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ and the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Now, Libs of TikTok’s X account has 3.2 million followers and support from influential people like Joe Rogan, Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk.
And Raichik has sway beyond social media.
Earlier this year, Raichik was appointed to the Oklahoma Library Media Advisory Committee, which is responsible for the state’s public school libraries. In that role, Raichik has pushed to remove several books that depict sex education and sexual orientation from library shelves.
Influence precedes action
Since the shooting, Raichik, via Libs of TikTok, has continued to highlight social media comments mocking or supporting the assassination attempt, at times tagging the user’s employer. The posts often garner thousands of responses, including threats to call the subject’s places of work.
After Libs of TikTok shared James’ post, he received emailed death threats, he said. Many messages also used derogatory slurs.
Since then, James said the Bellarmine’s College of Arts and Science Dean, Mary Huff, advised him in an email to deactivate his university email and his personal Facebook page. He said he has also deactivated his Instagram account
In James’ case, Bellarmine fired him over his alleged social media post,. Cissell, the university’s spokesperson, called it “unacceptable” but did not say whether the Libs of TikTok callout influenced the disciplinary decision.
James said Libs of TikTok was the reason his suspension got so much attention online and from Bellarmine leadership.
“What I want people to understand is that I was responsible for very little of what transpired here,” James said. “It's true, I made a distasteful post. I've seen many others make similar ones over the past several days — thousands of them, actually.”
James is not alone in facing employer action after the social media account featured his post.
In Mississippi, Democratic U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson fired one of his staffers, following a post on her Facebook account about the assassination attempt.
In Pennsylvania, a volunteer firefighter resigned following his social media post. The fire department also received a bomb threat Monday morning after the firefighter resigned.
An employee for the Lackawanna County commissioners in Pennsylvania was suspended on Monday for similar comments on social media.
In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a middle school employee was fired after her posts related to the assassination attempt.
Some LGBTQ+ advocacy groups — like GLAAD — have blamed Raichik’s account for online and verbal harassment, bomb threats and other forms of violence across the country.
Raichik said she is proud to be a “stochastic terrorist,” or someone who uses hateful or divisive rhetoric that inspires others to commit violence against a targeted individual or institution, the Washington Post reported in February, citing her comments on an unaffiliated podcast.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Raichik said “bomb threats are bad,” but she should not be held responsible for them.
James said Bellarmine is “extremely vulnerable” to attacks from groups like Libs of TikTok, especially when its professors are the main target.
“[My social media post] only became a news story because my particular account was poached by rightwing doxxers, who manufactured a social media — and, eventually, mainstream media — campaign with the express purpose of targeting what they perceived to be a liberal professor: the precise demographic they expressly despise,” James said.
This story has been updated with new information about John James’ employment status, as well as comments from James.
