Plot Against Barack Obama

Background

At the time, Barack Obama was listed as democratic nominee. The record is categorized as foiled or abandoned plot with a high confidence level.

Event details

The reported method was planned shooting spree / high-speed vehicle attack. Foiled; perpetrators arrested by federal agents before attempting the attack.

Aftermath

Cowart and Schlesselman, both teenagers with ties to white supremacist groups, were arrested by federal agents in Tennessee in October 2008 after posting online about a plan to kill Barack Obama and carry out a mass shooting spree targeting African American students. The plan also called for robbing a gun store and beheading 14 people; it was never executed. Both pleaded guilty to federal weapons and conspiracy charges; Cowart received approximately 14 years in federal prison and Schlesselman a shorter sentence after cooperation. Obama was not harmed and was not made aware of the specific threat at the time of his historic election. The case was among the first high-profile prosecutions of racially motivated domestic extremist plots against a major-party presidential nominee.

Historical significance

The Cowart-Schlesselman case was among the first federal prosecutions of a racially-motivated assassination plot against a major-party presidential nominee and exposed the violent undercurrents of white supremacist organizing as the United States prepared to elect its first African American president. The case drew national attention to the potential for domestic extremist violence at a moment of historic social change and reinforced the FBI's investment in monitoring domestic hate groups. Coming just weeks before Obama's election, the plot and its prosecution framed the security context of an unprecedented transition: the potential for racially-motivated threats against a Black president was not hypothetical—it had already been demonstrated and prosecuted while the campaign was still underway.

Sources

• Obama assassination plot (2008 Tennessee) — Wikipedia contributors
• List of United States presidential assassination attempts and plots — Wikipedia contributors